Moment of truth for P3bn tertiary financing

Lewanika Timothy | Tuesday July 8, 2025 09:31

Whilst there has been public outcry over government’s decision to review the Top Achievers sponsorship programme — potentially halting opportunities for students to study abroad — the real monkey on its back is the millions of pula in unpaid tertiary education loans.

Coupled with the ongoing brain drain, the country continues to lose thousands of sponsored learners to overseas opportunities. Many ultimately abandon the very government that funded their studies, opting for greener pastures rather than returning home to contribute skills and deliver a return on investment.

For decades, Botswana has prided itself as a social safety haven — from free healthcare to heavily subsidised education. But nowhere is this more evident than at the Department of Tertiary Education Financing (DTEF). From early education to higher learning, Batswana students bask in the warmth of free education with no skin in the game, as far as their parents’ pockets are concerned.

This practice has created a social loophole that violates a legal agreement graduands have with government – paying back their tertiary financing loans to enable future generations to similarly benefit.

This year alone, government has allocated a massive P3 billion towards tertiary financing, sponsoring around 12,000 student loans, grants, and sponsorships through DTEF under the Ministry of Higher Education.

This week, whilst addressing the media in Gaborone, Minister of Higher Education, Prince Maele, shared that government was facing pressing financial constraints leading to the review of some sponsorship programmes under the ministry.

“Due to funding constraints we are reviewing the Top Achievers sponsorship because sponsoring one student is the equivalent of sponsoring five students locally. We are reviewing this programme with the aim of stopping it. “We will not be able to sponsor students seeking re-sponsorship due to funding constraints,” he added.

The pronouncements make it evident that government is in a tight corner where it has to make the hard choices.

In fact, over the past financial years, government’s spending on education as a share of the national budget has consistently hovered amongst the top allocations.

In the current financial year, the proposed budget for the Ministry of Higher Education is P4.66 billion representing 7.1 percent, the fifth largest share of the allocations. The bulk of the proposed allocation covers the operational costs of the State-Owned Enterprises under this ministry.

But the question is no longer whether government spends enough on education. It is whether this model is sustainable or simply feeding a culture of dependency.

Originally, the tertiary financing system was designed as a loan-to-grant scheme: students would repay part or all of their loans based on their academic performance and employment prospects. But in practice, repayment has been dismal.

Estimates suggest that over 80% of loan beneficiaries either default or simply never pay, with little consequence. Meanwhile, others skip the country after graduation, never to return taking their taxpayer-funded degrees with them.

This financing crisis compounded by growing brain drain, Botswana’s top graduates are increasingly opting to work abroad particularly in South Africa, Europe, and Canada where opportunities for employment are richer. Whilst some argue that global exposure is good for the country, the reality is that Botswana’s education financing model is built on an assumption that graduates will stay, work, and repay. That assumption is no longer holding true.

There is a counter-argument, however, that sometimes these very graduates cannot find jobs in Botswana.

From a total of around one million Batswana who are eligible and actively seeking employment, almost a quarter of them cannot find their footing in the local labour market, which is surfeit and has no room for new entrants.

The figures are part of a larger trend which depicts a decades-old sting that has been biting away at the success story of Botswana’s diamond-dependent economy. According to figures from Statistics Botswana’s Quarterly Multi-Topic Survey on labour, unemployment has been in an upward motion, quarter-on-quarter over the years. In 2019, the unemployment figure stood at just a little under 200,000 but has since climbed to the current 287,000.

For now, government continues to foot the bill. But behind closed doors, officials are growing uneasy about the long-term risks. The Higher Education minister's recent address on the upcoming financing period already hints at the need for “restructuring of tertiary financing to improve recovery rates and curb rising fiscal pressures”.

If no action is taken, the country could soon face an education financing crisis with future students locked out as funds dry up.

Botswana faces a fork in the road: either it tightens the screws on loan repayment — through legislation, tax-linked recoveries, or employment bonds — or it risks entrenching a culture of permanent entitlement.

What’s clear is that the days of unlimited, free education funding may be coming to an end. The P3 billion question now hanging over Botswana is: who will fund the next generation’s revolving education financing scheme?