MoBE Wants P60M For BEC Expansion
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday February 24, 2020 16:06
In 2017, government, through a Cabinet Directive 10A/2017 directed BEC to build the necessary capacity to take up full responsibility of Vocational Moderation and Assessment, including all tasks and responsibilities which were previously undertaken by Madirelo Training and Testing Centre (MTTC).
“Out of this amount, P5 million has already been spent on transformation of the Botswana Examinations Council into a high performance organisation to cater for the assessment of general education and technical and vocational education and training leaving a balance of P5 million, which is inadequate to cover all the outstanding activities,” it reads.
“Therefore, the Total Estimated Costs (TEC) of this project needs to be increased by P50,000,000 from P10,000,000 to P60,000,000.”
According to the Ministry of Finance estimates seen by The Monitor, the MoBE says the BEC transformation project is expanded mandate to enable it to provide for the BEC Amendment Act 2019 that was approved by Parliament in July 2019.
Last year, BEC’s mandate was expanded to include assessment of Early Childhood Education, Out-of-School Education and Training, Technical Vocational Education and Training and the Botswana Educational Achievement Monitor.
On the other hand, MoBE project is being reduced by P50,000,000 from P2,327,500,000 to P2,277,500,000 in order to augment the TEC for the BEC transformation project.
“The implementation of the Secondary Education programme that is, refurbishment of education facilities and school expansion, as well as construction of staff houses is ongoing albeit at a slow implementation pace due to capacity constraints, limited availability of materials, poor workmanship and abandoning of sites by contractors,” it reads.