BOSETU Splashes P1.7m To Up-Skilling Members
Koketso Kgoboge | Monday August 6, 2018 12:27
Radikolo announced this at the recently concluded BOSETU policy conference. He said this gesture is a contribution on their part in the nation’s effort of transforming the economy of the republic from resource-based to a knowledge-based economy.
He said the transformation would only be realised when the government begins to walk the talk.
Radikolo said there couldn’t be a conversation about a knowledge-based economy that excludes education and teachers. “We (teachers) are the drivers of this transformation and we are taking our strides towards the transformation,” he said.
He said the policy conference is another contribution from the Union that is designed for the transformation.
Through the conference, he said, the ministry will benefit apposite research that would promote research-based policies and policy guidelines to help influence policy direction.
However, he said the government, the ministries of education and the education system is not ready for the transformation. He said the government is still failing to address teachers welfare and conditions of service.
“How do we transform to a knowledge-based economy when the spine of the transformation is not functional.
How do we transform if the government continues to fail basic welfare issues, enumerating issues and payments,” he quipped. He said teachers are sent to further their studies and specialise and yet they find the schools are not well resourced to accommodate the knowledge and experiences they bring.
He said the structures in the ministry have collapsed and the ministry is failing to incentivize research, which is prudent in the transformation.
He said the education system is not equipped enough to brood and export knowledge. “Our system is not ready to produce the Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and the like,” he said.
He further said the nation would not realize the transformation if corruption is still the order of the day and unemployment continues to devastate the republic.
“Unemployment is a burden to us, the nation is not even safe anymore because people are resorting to crime because of the failure of the government to address this unemployment predicament.”
The minister of Basic Education Bagalatia Arone welcomed the Unions’ contribution in upgrading and up-skilling its members.
He promised that the current leadership is working around the clock to soliciting ways of transforming the systems of all the ministries and improving the conditions of service.
He said the ministry is also committed to advancing teachers in their scales in a bid to open thousands of entry openings in a bid to address the unemployment challenge.
He said the government has the policies and the strategies in place and they want to ascertain themselves that the strategies are relevant for a roll out.
“We are introspecting; we want to be sure that what we implement is what the nation will embrace,” he said, expressing confidence that once they conclude the introspection the new regime would unroll desired changes for the nation.