A betrayal of posterity (Pt II)

Mmegi Editor | Thursday September 4, 2014 15:20

We highlighted two instances of the grave injustice visited on this country’s children, one of these being the abandonment of New Xade primary learners some of whom who have since quit school due to non-provision of uniforms in winter.

The other was the curious case of Mokobaxane teachers who are forced to regularly abandon pupils and classes in order to catch kombis and other transport, to answer the call of nature elsewhere.

In yesterday’s edition, we carried the latest installment in our policymakers’ betrayal of our posterity. Students at Tonota College of Education boycotted classes in protest against a litany of grievances ranging from dilapidated and vermin infested buildings, to inadequate staff and resources to payment terms.

According to the students, the Special Needs Education course has 644 students and yet is staffed by only one lecturer, while another, Education Technology, has 264 students and again, one lecturer. Rats and cockroaches are running wild in the run-down buildings, while students say their frequent pleas for relief have been met with, at best, managerial indifference and at worse, disdain.

It is important to reiterate that it again appears clear that  despite  living in the era of “returns-based budgeting”, the taxpayer billions pumped into education are falling through the cracks. Between Batswana as the paymasters and students as the beneficiaries, the education ministry is dropping the ball and not extending the goodwill citizens are directing to their children via the education budget.

Next February, as has happened in previous budgets, the Finance Ministry will reveal millions in returns from the Education Ministry back to treasury in unused development funds, while students such as those at Tonota, endure nightmarish conditions. While Batswana, through their taxes, understand the critical need to educate and empower future generations for this country’s self-preservation and growth, our inefficient systems are failing our students and denying them a fair share in life. While large volumes of studies, commissions and consultancies have been produced detailing how to better manage the education sector, no change will be possible unless the wielders of power appreciate the link between providing education and the country’s future growth. It is also appropriate at this point to note that the situation Tonota, New Xade and Mokobaxane learners find themselves in, is in direct contrast to the president’s “third D” being Dignity, which has led some of them to violate the “second D” Discipline.

We again call upon post-October 24 legislators, ministers and other policymakers to prioritise education reform and adopt the maxim that “an investment in knowledge pays the best interest”.

                                                       Today’s thought

“The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.”

                                                      - Abraham Lincoln