Less cash for schools in MoESD budget

Gothataone Moeng | Thursday March 6, 2014 09:41

 

This year, the ministry is requesting over P9 billion in recurrent budget and only P630 million is expected to go to the welfare of students and funding necessities such as feeding, utilities and stationery. The P630 million will be shared among the 239 schools the ministry looks after. Education Minister, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi told Parliament this week that each school requires P5.5 million for basic necessities, but the ministry can only provide P2.6 million per school. “This actually makes it nearly impossible to adequately address the needs of the education sector at all levels, despite this seemingly large budget provision for the ministry,” she said when presenting her ministry’s budget proposals.

In recent years, the ministry has been beleaguered by tussles with teachers over overtime pay, accommodation, lack of textbooks, shortage of facilities such as laboratories and computers and a worrisome student to teacher ratio. These have all led to rapidly deteriorating performance in national examination.

Venson-Moitoi told Parliament this week that despite these challenges, she and her team are determined to improve quality in schools, cautioning that the turn-around everybody wishes for will not be quick.

“I urge you to realise that the turn-around we all desire is not going to be quick. It is going to come with time and with all of us joining forces. I can say with confidence though that the toughest hurdles have been overcome, and that once we strengthen management of schools and procurement systems for necessities such as food and books at the institutions of learning, results should begin to improve,” she said.

Venson-Moitoi said her ministry is developing a comprehensive Education and Training Sector Strategic Plan to be completed by August 2014. She said some of the areas identified as critical for reform are currently being dealt with through pilot projects. 

“This includes improvements in school management, introduction of subject clinics, extra lessons, team teaching, motivational which are aimed at fostering independent learning as well as rewarding of staff and learners,” she said.  She said the ministry has taken the first steps by piloting some of these elements in some of the low performing schools.

Venson-Moitoi said following the rationalisation of the payment structure of the teaching cadre, with last year’s introduction of the Levels of Operation, 52 percent of the budget (P4,859,564,830) has been allocated for salaries and allowances.

The second largest expenditure of the ministry’s recurrent budget will be on tertiary education. However, the amount has decreased since 2012-2013 as a result of the Study in Botswana campaign. The ministry’s statutory organisations have been allocated 14.1 percent of the recurrent budget.