Ministry achieves some projects
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday December 19, 2022 06:00
The ministry is amongst the biggest after Basic Education and Tertiary Education were brought back under the same roof. With education being regarded key, the ministry is set to play an important role in the Reset Agenda hence the need to do it right.
The Dr Douglas Letsholathebe led ministry is off its feet with some inventions set to support President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s Reset Agenda. In October this year, Cabinet and Permanent Secretaries held a Joint Retreat to discuss ways that will redouble efforts to deliver on the promises made to Batswana. The objective was to achieve more efficient service delivery, transformation and to realise more value with limited resources. For the transitional National Development Plan (NDP) 2023/2024, the Ministry has requested P797 million.
The Programme aims to facilitate education planning for pre-primary to tertiary education through the use of an Education Management Information System (EMIS), the provision of ICT devices to learners from upper primary to senior secondary.
It will further implement the National Labour Market Information System (LMIS) to help map the skills available and needs to guide human resource development. The ministry has thus far secured laptops for most of the students and teachers in Senior Secondary Schools and looks set to supply the rest of the schools over a short period of time. “My ministry is moving with speed to embrace the opportunities offered by digitalisation. As I speak today, laptop devices are being delivered to senior secondary schools across the country.
Every teacher and every learner in every senior secondary school will be issued a laptop beginning next term. The devices are distinctively colour-coded Botswana blue and installed with a security tracking system and a remote cut-off mechanism to render them unusable should they fall into the wrong hands,” Letsholathebe told Parliament recently.
For secondary education, the Ministry requested P760 million. According to NDP report 2023/2024, “The Programme aims to provide quality, efficient, equitable and relevant education to all, in line with the Education and Training Sector Strategic Plan (ETSSP). It will cover maintenance and expansion of both Junior and Senior Secondary Schools, teachers’ accommodation as well as electrification of primary schools country-wide.” The ongoing projects in secondary schools include the Maintenance of Senior Secondary Schools; Schools Power Upgrading; Maintenance of Burnt Facilities; Moeng College Pathways; Maintenance of Junior Secondary Schools; Secondary Schools Staff Housing and Secondary Schools Expansion, all budgeted for P680 million. And P80 million has been allocated for the construction of new Junior Secondary Schools and new Senior Secondary Schools.
Development of primary education
For the primary schools, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has requested Services of (P1,721.27 million)???. The report says the Programme serves to address some of the Revised National Policy on Education objectives, which advocate for a classroom/ratio of 30 pupils to one teacher (30:1) in all public schools which are in line with the government's priority on Education and Human Capital Development. “Provision of new and additional facilities like new primary schools, facilities backlog eradication and recreational facilities will be made under this programme. The Programme will cover electrification of schools in villages which recently benefited from the national rural electrification project or by solar where BPC grid is inaccessible.” In addition to that, many other various projects are ongoing in the ministry. These include the purchase of tablets for Primary Schools; Primary School facilities Backlog Eradication (country-wide) and maintenance of primary Schools. The ongoing construction of new primary schools is done in the following areas: Kgwakgwe, Letoreng, Lentsweletau, Kopong, Gumare, Mahalapye, Ramokgonami, Borolong, Shashemooke, Goodhope, Moshupa, Tlokweng, Gantsi, Charleshill, Gaborone Block 10), Chadibe (Tswapong), Tsetsebjwe, Tonota and Molepolole. Mother tongue teaching will also be introduced in schools after Parliament approved its implementation. While Mmegi columnist, Tshwarelo Hosia said the ETSSP laid bare the challenges bedevilling the education sector in the country and more importantly created some sense of urgency to close gaps identified. The ETSSP was designed to restore a sense of accountability in schools among other things. “A properly run school should never doubt its ability and power to get the teaching and learning train back on the rails. Low accountability in schools means gone are the days when a school could proudly declare that ‘the buck stops here’. The initiative to get things right in the classroom has been lost to external forces. With accountability gone out of the window, all hopes are pinned on education oversight institutions to initiate reforms,” he stated.