UB Graduates On Bended Knees For Jobs
Pini Bothoko | Monday April 1, 2019 14:37
After eagerly waiting for years to obtain jobs to no avail the now desperate graduates accuse government of failing them. They said they were told to get qualifications for a better life, but instead they are still swimming in a pool of poverty.
More than 200 University of Botswana (UB) humanities graduates recently took their desperation to another level petitioning the government for lack of employment opportunities.
They submitted their petition to the Office of the President disclosing their imbroglio to President Mokgweetsi Masisi. One might wonder whether prospects of securing employment have changed or if there is something wrong with the system. To date their plea has not been addressed, something that enrages them while they sit at home as if they are not educated.
Graduates plead with government to consider creating jobs because it has been more than a decade since they graduated and are yet to be hired. They said their course is no longer valid for accreditation because it back dates to 2005 and yet they are still roaming the streets unemployed.
The unemployed graduates said the verbal response they got from Office of the President urged them to instead bring their petition through a registered society or send their letters as individuals.
The dejected graduates said they were disappointed as they were bringing forward a valid national matter that warranted being attended to without looking for loopholes and technicalities as if they were in court. They said they were, however, informed that their matter has been referred to the Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM) something that surprised them because they were also complaining about the same department failing to hire them.
“Our sons (and daughters) should not live to face the toils we face. We live to create a better tomorrow, so they too may create an even better future,” read the petition that the graduates handed to OP as a matter of urgency. They argued that humanities graduates are easily adaptable to multiple job openings owing to their adaptive training. They admitted that not all of them may be civil servants nor business people, but the nature of their course of study and government’s economic behaviour tells them that they remain in demand more than ever before.
“We are saddened that while the above picture is continually trumpeted, the reality on the ground glaringly speaks otherwise.
Humanities graduates are piling on the streets ever since the disciplined forces stopped employing them in large numbers,” read the petition.The unemployed graduates said the forces have rather opted to employ graduates who already have foundations in areas for which the force may wish to use them for upon completion of training.
Thereafter graduates were then selectively and, with malicious intent,employed at the youth ministry and Land Boards where now they are said to be full.
“Humanities graduates must take another bridging course in order for them to gain competitive mileage. For example, BA humanities graduates had to do Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) in order to join the teaching fraternity.
They have done it and are still doing it as we speak, yet DPSM only considers the year in which they completed their PGDE not their first degree, which takes one back to where they thought they were improving their employment sighting,” states the petition.
They said DPSM does not hire graduates with PGDE stating to have not received rigorous teaching training. They explained that the multitudes of those desperately enrolling for PGDE have amassed teaching experience through contract teaching.
The graduates accused DPSM of frustrating and dividing them hiring only those who graduated after 2010 hence misrepresenting their grievances to government.
They decried to be nearing the age of 40 and said it hurts, as government does not employ people of that age as permanent employees despite having not worked anywhere.
“We have become a generation of failures to the society and on that government uses to drive home the lack of initiative on today’s youth. We have considered working abroad, but remain sceptical of a government that has continually failed us at home, neglected students it sent to study abroad and recently kept quiet when Batswana teachers in Namibia alleged all sorts of maltreatment from their hosts,” the petition read.