Govt snubs stakeholders on envisaged university
Patricia Edwin | Thursday August 28, 2014 06:00
The councillors were responding to a presentation by the deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) Kgopotso Ramoroka at the last ordinary full council meeting held in Francistown yesterday.
From his presentation the deputy PS basically said that the relocation of FCE was provided for in the NDP8 and NDP9 but it had to be withheld due to financial constraints.
He said that the reason for the relocation was congestion and lack of space for expansion within the present location.
“It was to be relocated to Gerald Estates as a dual teacher education institution for basic education, both primary and secondary and an education centre for educational services including in-service and research,” he said.
However, he said that it was later agreed that instead of relocating, FCE be transformed into a northern campus of the Open University following the transformation of BOCODOL as part of a rationalisation process, and Lobatse College of Education (LCE) as the southern campus.
Ramoroka said that it is also proposed that part of FCE be turned into a centre for in-service training for selected subject areas as originally suggested.
He further said that the decision not to take any new students as of August 2013 was taken to allow for a smooth transition to the revised mandate.
He said that currently FCE has 141 students who are expected to complete in May 2015.
“Consultations and counselling of staff members are on-going.
“Some staff members had to be transferred to other institutions due to the reduced student population, and by extension the reduced workload,” he added.
He went on to tell the councillors that the way forward is the setting up of the in-service centre, the designation of some of the current staff members to serve in the service centre, research, information and technology to form part of the centre and the opening of the Open University Campus.
But councillors insisted that they wanted the university in Gerald Estates as first promised and they had land in Gerald reserved for that university.
Councillors complained that they were not being taken seriously and that the community of Francistown was left out in the consultations.
Councillor Buti Billy said that the first concept to take university to Gerald Estates and combine primary and secondary education was ideal. “It would have helped to have teachers who are trained to teach across the board from pre-school to secondary education.
“It would have been a vast improvement to combine levels in that manner,” he said.
He said that the idea to turn FCE into an open university and in-service training is also good, but the government should look into building it in Gerald Estates where they can have room for expansion later.
He also suggested that FCE could be turned into a Mathematics and Science university since there is a challenge in those particular subjects in the country.
The councillors were almost unanimous in their suggestion that the university be built in Gerald Estates, to which Ramoroka said that they would carry the suggestion forward.