Molao pleads ignorance of ghost students
Baboki Kayawe | Thursday August 4, 2016 14:33
‘Ghost students’ is a term used for non-existent tertiary students, even those who have completed higher studies, but continue to receive the monthly P1,400 living allowance given to government-sponsored learners.
Assistant minister of education and skills development, Fidelis Molao told Parliament this week that all new students were captured in a digitised Student Loan Management System, which ensures that government sponsored students qualify in terms of nationality, age and eligibility for sponsorship.
Francistown West Member of Parliament (MP), Ignatius Moswaane had asked the education minister to brief the House on current monitory mechanisms apart from audit report to curb such.
The said electronic system, according to Molao is linked directly to the National Identification Database to confirm nationality and age of applicants. In addition, he said it is linked to the Botswana Examinations Council as a confirmation of BGSCE results. “Upon issuance of the sponsorship letters students are required to register with their institutions. Proof of their registration is submitted to DTEF before any payment of allowances to the student, or tuition fees to the institution can be made,” he said.
However, he said his ministry does not conduct periodic re-registration exercises for all students during the academic semesters to ensure the physical attendance of students.
The issue of ghost students in higher education financing has dominated mainstream media reports for quite some time. Last June, DTEF conducted a departmental audit to investigate fraud and corruption that has led to the department losing millions of pula. DTEF officials were said to be under the surveillance radar of officers from the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC). It was understood that close to P10 million went missing at DTEF due to rampant corruption, fraud and nepotism.
At the time, assistant minister for education and skills development, Moiserale Goya confirmed that the audit was ongoing at DTEF. “It is true that there is an internal audit within DTEF which is expected to improve our data base so that it becomes more accurate,” Goya said then.