Ministry of Education wins in belt-tightening

| Thursday March 11, 2010 00:00

One of the places where you least expect to see prudent use of resources is the Ministry of Education where wastage defined the modus operandi for a long time. What with the ministry sending students to colleges that hardly merit such titles and ghost students being paid allowances.

But this time round, the ministry has outdone even the best in ensuring that there is prudent use of resources.The Minister of Education, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi has pleaded with central government and local government not to auction old computers. Instead, the old computers will be refurbished and given to primary schools to use. This is very thoughtful and the ministry should be congratulated for killing two birds with one stone.

First the refurbishment will save the ministry some money that will have been used to buy new computers for primary schools. Second and most importantly, this process will without doubt expedite the process of computerising primary schools.

Many primary schools in the country do not have computers and this affects learning and teaching. Primary schools as the foundation of education, cannot function without computers in this age. It is important that students are given a head-start while they are still young and eager to learn. It does not make sense for computers to be introduced in the final stages of a child's education.

The desire to introduce computers in early childhood education has always been defeated by shortage of resources and we believe the Ministry of Education's initiative will in a very big way, reduce the shortage.

We are aware that the old computers to be auctioned have been benefiting small companies and individuals, some of whom cannot afford to buy new machines. However, we believe that the benefit to primary schools far much out-weighs the empowerment to small businesses and individuals. It is important that we invest in the education of our children.

On a different note, we should thank the Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS) for buying scanning X-ray equipment that will help detect concealed consignments. With diamond revenue declining, taxes are one significant source of state income. BURS needs to be vigilant to ensure that it gets all the taxes it is entitled to.

There is no doubt that a lot of goods that are concealed go undetected and hence Botswana loses out on income that could be used for social development.

We want to appeal to BURS to supplement the scanners with public education on the importance of declaring goods. Once the scanners are brought in, the public should be educated. We believe that it is good when the public acts out of free will than by compulsion or fear.

                                                                                Today's thought

                                                     'You are never a loser until you quit trying.'