Limkokwing retrenches staff
Tefo Pheage | Friday January 20, 2017 15:14
Limkokwing brand custodian, Mercy Thebe has confirmed that the institution will retrench staff.
Thebe said: “This has been necessitated by a significant and sustained decline in student enrolment faced by the entire tertiary education sector in Botswana mainly due to the low number of sponsored students by the main client, Government, the recent graduation of students as well as the declining numbers of leaving senior secondary school pupils, who fail to meet the selection criteria of higher education institutions to attract Department of Tertiary Education Funding (DTEF) funding”.
She revealed that since 2014, the university has enrolled a very low number of students to replace the number of students who were graduating.
This is seen as part of rationalisation measures to improve the financial position of the institution and help reduce its wage bill that has been affected by the recently introduced quota system for Government tertiary sponsorship.
The development comes amid reports that the quota decision has mostly affected private tertiary schools, which survive mostly through tuition fees.
Mmegi has since established that the retrenchment letters, which were issued to the affected employees on Monday, have already disrupted learning as the affected are now focusing their energies on their unknown future.
Apparently, the staff members are also at loggerheads with the institution saying they have not been allowed to unionise after the institution informed them that they long parted ways with Trade and Allied Workers Union (TAWU), which has been their mouthpiece.
Despite that, the institution has been deducting subscription money from members, but the staff was not allowed to be represented by the Union in the entire matter, some Limkokwing retrenched staff members told Mmegi.
The institution called a staff meeting twice on the retrenchment issue, seeking their input and recommendations on the calamity. The staff was consequently requested to bring proposals on how the matter could better be addressed.
“We were shocked at the second meeting where we were informed of the number of those who will be retrenched while we had thought it was the time to discuss our submissions and compare notes,” one of the retrenched staff members said.
TAWU secretary general, Setso Ntsuke said their relationship with Limkokwing is still facing some challenges as they have not yet renewed their collective labour agreement.
“We still need to meet to sign the Memorandum of Understanding and we understand that Limkokwing is using that loophole to sideline us and deal directly with the members,” he said. “We are still investigating the matter and understand that there are developments to the issue of retrenchments.”
Earlier this year, through the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC), Government introduced the concept of aligning training to skills priority areas.
Essentially, the effort was to ensure that the billions of pula Government pumps into sponsorship of tertiary students go towards qualifications and skills that the economy required.
The idea is to avoid ‘wasting’ scarce national resources, inflating the numbers of graduates in already surfeit sectors, to the detriment of sectors where skills are required.
The strategising culminated in the publication of quota allocations of study programmes, through which government specified the number of students per institution per course, it was willing to sponsor, starting this year.
Sources say Limkokwing is not the only affected instititon as the same problems and fate are looming at others. The move by the Government is seen as a U-turn from the 2007 decision, by the former president, Festus Mogae’s administration to sponsor students for programmes provided by private tertiary education institutions.
The former president’s expressed wish was that the private education sector would aid Botswana’s commitment to increasing its gross enrollment ratio from seven percent in 2003-2004, among the age group of 18 to 24, to at least 17% by 2016.
In 2013, the University had a total of 7,247 students and employed staff numbers consistent with the needs of such a student community.
As of 2015, the University had a total of 3,800 students still having the same staff complement to service over 7,000 students while in 2016 the University had only 3,142 students still with the same staff complement.
Thebe said the University wished to assure parents and stakeholders that the business of the University will not be adversely affected by this exercise.
'Classes and operations will continue as normal and the remaining staff is not only adequate in terms of numbers, but also competent in terms of retained skills and expertise to deliver the on-going mandate of the university.”