Finally, a focused education approach
Mmegi Editor | Wednesday June 25, 2014 15:32
The new development will give students an early opportunity to choose subjects that are relevant to careers they want to pursue. In other words, a student who has interest in carpentry, metal work, plumbing, medicine, engineering, agricultural science, theatre, and others, will decide at senior secondary school, which career to pursue. Officials from the Ministry of Education say the blueprint will be rolled out in three phases between 2016-2018.
The announcement comes a few months after revelations that the ministry is implementing the Education and Training Sector Strategic Plan (ETSSP). The main objective of ETSSP is to recognise all skills and empower citizens where necessary. The ETSSP covers all learners from pre-school to tertiary education.
If these proposed changes are implemented as scheduled, the country’s economy will benefit immensely. It is our belief that we will have engineers at an early age, unlike the current situation where one is required to spend 12 years of basic education, two years of theory at university before finally engaging in practical work.
From independence, the country has been obsessed with producing white collar graduates in high numbers, neglecting the other sectors such as construction, arts, and engineering. We are aware that at some point after independence, the government introduced brigades, vocational training centres, and other initiatives such as the Construction Industry Trade Fund. However, these were not given enough attention, and graduates or artisans from these institutions were regarded as second-class employees. This then gave way for some big contractors to import labourers when they got big tenders to construct dams, roads, buildings and power stations.
The same can be said about the auto industry, which has potential to employ many young Batswana if well regulated and resources invested therein. So far, there are more than 300,000 vehicles on our roads and servicing them is a good source of employment.
However, the architects of the great idea - Career Pathways Approach - missed the point when they called for compulsory subjects to be Setswana and English while maths and science are optional. Perhaps they should have explained further how they arrived at this decision. Nyaya betsho, maths and science are of great importance if we indeed want to produce engineers of international standard.
The Japanese produce some of the best engineers in the world yet most of them do not speak English. They got where they are today because they focused on science and mathematics, the basic subjects of any engineering career.
Today's Thought
Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.
-John Dewey