JTech Students Boycott Classes
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Monday May 27, 2019 13:11
The college’s Students Representative Council (SRC) minister of apprentice, Thapelo Kgosiemang said the students were unhappy with many issues such as unaccredited courses, unaccredited and shortage of lectures, lack of workshop equipment and insufficient student allowance.
“This issue is broad, it’s a nationwide problem. October 4, 2018 was our initial opening date, but we were told to come back in January this year, as preparations for our programmes were still underway,” he said.
“As from the set date, we have not done anything concerning our being here. We were introduced to Character Building Programme, which lasted for three months.”
Kgosiemang said the programme was put in place to buy time for their courses, institution and lectures to be accredited. He added that they also wanted their workshops to be furnished with the relevant equipment.
He revealed that they had countless meetings with their college management concerning the stated issues.
The students were however, never given valid answers as they were told that the Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development was the only one who could give them relevant information.
“We requested the principal to inform the PS that we want her to visit the college and address us to no avail,” Kgosiemang said.
“We asked for assistance from the Jwaneng/Mabutsane MP and the mayor to transport us to Gaborone to get information from the minister, but our seeds have borne no fruit. This is why we as the SRC decided to undergo a peaceful demonstration from today till May 30, 2019.”
He said their decision to boycott classes and carry demonstrations came after their principal told them that the PS instructed that they must attend classes whilst awaiting accreditation.
He said they were worried that the instruction was verbal and had no written document to support it. “The living standards of this town are so high, it is costly to live in Jwaneng. There are 1,050 students in our college. Only 360 have been accommodated.
This has left some of us battling with the hardships of surviving this town with a room cost upto P1, 000 monthly rent and our student allowance being P300, some of us have been involved in acts which are deemed to be immoral such as prostitution and theft in order to survive.
We would want our allowance to be increased to P1, 400 per month,” he said.
They stated their concerns in a letter, which they presented, to District Commissioner and Jwaneng mayor who promised to send it to the relevant ministry’s PS. They gave the Ministry till June 4, 2019 to have responded to them.