�Tertiary students are to blame� � Magama
Chakalisa Dube | Wednesday March 25, 2015 11:24
Speaking at the recently held Tertiary Education Fair organised by the Botswana Student Network, Magama said that it is in fact graduates themselves who are to blame for their deplorable examination results. “Some of you give consultants your assignments so that they can do them on your behalf. The assignments are meant to challenge you to see if you have understood what you have been taught in class.
“However, when you give them to consultants it means that you will not be able to test yourself if you have understood what was taught in class. This is among the factors that contribute to the decline in quality of graduates produced,” Magama said, adding that tertiary level students also abuse the freedom they get because they study far away from parental guidance. “Instead of focusing on their education students now turn to drugs and alcohol as well as engage in other forms of wayward behaviour. In the end they fail. Such forms of ill-fated behaviour also leads to the failure of students and when they fail they cost the government fortunes retaking modules,” he said, while pleading with students to behave.
In addition, Magama said that there is need for investment by government and external stakeholders such as the student network to educate potential tertiary students on the importance of behaving and maintaining focus at tertiary.
“We have to prepare them (students going to tertiary schools) for tertiary education so that they do not go astray like others before them,” he said.
Botswana Students Network Communications Officer, Lillian Moremi, said that they decided to hold the fair in Francistown in order to afford potential tertiary students networking opportunities with tertiary schools that participated at the fair.
She added that through the fair they also teach potential candidates what to expect at tertiary level and how they should behave to attain excellence. She also acknowledged that there is greater need to put more emphasis on teaching potential students what to expect at tertiary level to reduce the swelling numbers that develop a poor attitude towards their studies.