GIPS SRC blames BCP for chaos

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Thursday November 20, 2008 00:00

The SRC Minister of Sports and Entertainment, Comfort Rannoane said the BCP cheated the students to go and present a petition to the Ministry of Education. He said the BCP youth told GIPS students that colleagues from other colleges like University of Botswana, NIIT and Limkokwing will be present at the handover of the petition only to find that they were not there.

Rannoane said only GIPS students were present at the handover. 'BCP should have just helped us follow the proper channels of raising our complaints to the ministry instead of trying to be heroes in this issue.' He explained that initially, the students complained to the SRC about lack of computers at GIPS and incompetent lecturers. 'They wanted us to take the matter seriously and we took their complaints to the management who bought the computers. The students then complained that the computers were not enough,' he said. He stated that the BCPYL came into the picture after their discussions with a certain SRC official. He said they only heard rumours about a petition.

Rannoane stated that after the petition was handed over, Ministry of Education officials called them for a meeting where representatives from GIPS and Tertiary Education Council (TEC) were present. 'We were told to go back to classes while the matter is still being investigated. The students showed their dissatisfaction and then the BCP included them in the war against the Media Bill that is to be tabled in Parliament. The issue was politicised and ended up with four students including the president being expelled from the school for leading the strike,' he said. Rannoane said that now the students are striking for the reinstatement of the expelled and suspended students. 'Our aim is to convince them to go back to classes because the exams are fast approaching and at the end of the day, we came here for education,' he said.

BCPYL secretary general, Thato Osupile said the GIPS SRC is very divided with one side siding with the college management.

He explained that what they are doing or have done is not a criminal offence but their entitlement as a political party. He pointed out that the striking students would only go back to class when their demands have been met. 'First and foremost, we have demanded that the Education Minister, Jacob Nkate should step down as he can interfere with investigations. We believe that his slow reaction to responding to the students' concerns shows that he is somewhat sympathising with the management of the colleges,' Osupile said.

Meanwhile, the Principal Public Relation Officer of MoE has threatened that the students face termination of sponsorship if they do not go back to class. 'If it comes to push we will terminate their sponsorship because we paid for them to attend classes not to be outside classrooms,' she said. She confirmed that the ministry has had a meeting with the students and answered their petition.