The end of DTEF nears

Gothataone Moeng | Friday February 21, 2014 16:30

The HRDC will also house the Human Resource Development Fund, formerly known as the Vocational Training Levy and the Tertiary Support Fund, which will now target public institutions providing programmes needed by the economy.

Under the HRDC, the fund to be known as the Student Support Fund will become a revolving fund that will eventually need no input from government, Molutsi said.  He was speaking to Mmegi yesterday at the sidelines of a meeting between the Department of National Internship Programme (DNIP), the HRDC and the Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA) and various industries’ professional bodies to strengthen dialogue on producing a competent human resource.

Molutsi said under the HRDC, the fund will be much more effective and better managed. He said they will computerise the whole system of funding and keeping track of government sponsored students to ensure effective collection of debts from graduates.  Further, to make the loan collection more effective, the Student Support Fund, under the HRDC, will establish a relationship with the Botswana Unified Revenue Services, which he said, has been helping with the collection of funds from the Vocational Training Levy.  The management of the fund will also be outsourced to a fund managing company, which will ensure that the organ is eventually self-sufficient and can finance more students from loans re-paid by graduates.

Molutsi also said the council will be able to solve the consistent problems of students whose tuition fees are sometimes not paid by the time the academic year starts.

“It was a result of doing things manually. Everything will be done manually - students will apply online, and they will know if they have been admitted before school opens and asked to text their account details,” he said.

He also said keeping an online for record of students will help with monitoring to ensure that there is no paying of allowances to students, and tuition fees to institutions, for students who are no longer enrolled.

The DTEF is currently housed under the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD).  Under the new dispensation, employees of the department will be re-deployed between the HRDC and the MoESD.