Budget fails education sector

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Thursday February 8, 2007 00:00

For a start, nothing was said about the Tertiary Education Policy to regulate the tertiary institutions and the broader mandate of the Tertiary Education Council, vis--vis registration and accreditation and the likely effects of these processes on the quality of education in Botswana. The minister again failed to mention whether the policy that was submitted to Cabinet last year has been approved or not.

While the transition rate from junior secondary to Form Four has been increased to 83 percent, the finance minister did not indicate whether government is going to increase the intake at tertiary institutions. He mentioned the takeover of the brigades but failed to explain how they are going to link that with the senior schools to prepare them to take vocational education. 'He raised a number of interesting issues as if they were different unrelated issues. There is an absence of an overall strategy on human resource for the economy,' commented one education expert. Minister Gaolathe mentioned the takeover of brigades and converting them into technical colleges but did not provide any time frame. 'It was not enough to say that they were busy with the takeover without giving the time frame within which the audits would be completed. It is not enough looking at the way they are currently run, especially the workers. We hope government will speed up the process,' Trainers and Allied Workers Union president Allan Keitseng said.

On other issues, the minister failed to address the impact of double shifts in the one year that they have been running. He also did not give a systematic analysis of the impact of school fees or how much was generated and if there were any students who did not go to school because their parents could not afford to pay for them.

There are many graduate teachers roaming the streets with no jobs and the finance minister did not say anything about their status or if they are getting any jobs. At the end, the minister failed to indicate why the ministry needs a second assistant minister.

On the other hand, there are some who are hopeful about the money allocated to the Ministry of Education but question if the implementation of projects on the ground will go well. 'All stakeholders should sit down, set targets and identify priority areas. They do not take the teachers' organisations seriously and it is obvious their first priority is the BIUST,' president of Botswana Secondary Teachers' Union, Eric Ditau, charged.  Ditau noted that their first priority is the transition of students from junior secondary schools without compromising the quality of education.