Education ministry should sort itself out

Editor | Wednesday July 28, 2010 00:00

In the tradition of such movie heroes such as Superman or 007, Pelonomi-Venson came in just in time to rescue the victims from imminent destruction.

So, our minister is a hero like her predecessor, Jacob Nkate, who created funds to once again sponsor those students who were going to be left out by his tight 40-plus policies.

This is all wrong.  There is nothing Robin Hood-like about these two.

It shows the sheer ineptitude of the Moe, that a minister who had created chaos could then win so much praise for correcting the same chaos.

However, we won't let this self-adulation mislead. We know that there are stark facts that need to be encountered at the ministry.  Firstly, the ministry does not seem to have any organised way of dealing with sponsorships.

A ministry must have a budget. It should then have a specific and transparent way in which it communicates this information to institutions so that they do not overload their ranks with students who might be expecting to be sponsored by the government.

Secondly, the ministry should be very honest about what type of budget it has.

We have always argued that government needs to stick to the basics and not be seen to be prepared to waste funds on such mindless expeditions as P11, 000 grandfather clocks and P45, 000 fridges for ministers.

This is what causes the outcry when the government comes back to parents imploring them to sponsor their own children. After all, how could a government that spends P46, 000 on a minister's fridge fail to pay for a course that costs a fraction of the figure!

Government has to get its priorities right and has to be seen to have done so.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for parents to be convinced that government does not have funds to fund education.                                                           Today's thought'We utilised the savings from last year that amounted to P350 million to sponsor new students'

                                                       - Ruth Maphorisa (The permanent secretary in Ministry of Education)