BOTA overwhelmed by dubious institutions

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Tuesday March 2, 2010 00:00

This follows the unannounced relocation of the Botswana University College Law School from its known location at the Main Mall to a smaller space at Gaborone West Mall.

BOTA's public relations and promotions officer, Spencer Moreri says some institutions employ qualified staff, hire computers and rent out big premises only to impress his organisation for inspections for registration.

'They are not concerned with providing quality education but see their institutions as money making schemes,' says Moreri, adding that students must be vigilant when enrolling with tertiary institutions in order to ensure they will not cheated of their hard earned money.

He says BOTA is investigating the Botswana University College Law School regarding why it relocated without informing its students who were left stranded.

'Investigations are on-going to find out where it is because it is currently not at the place that we know,' he says. 'We also want to establish whether the new premises comply with our standards.

We will involve the relevant authorities to help us locate the director if he does not contact us in 14 days as stipulated in our regulations.'

The owner of the institution, Advocate Milton, could not be reached at the time of going to press.

'They moved from those offices because there was a misunderstanding with the landlord,' said one of his employees at the Gaborone West premises.

The institution started operating in January this year with 14 BOTA accredited courses that run for a maximum of 10 months.

The courses are at certificate level, namely, Advanced Certificate in Law, Human Rights Law, The Law and HIV/AIDS, The Law and Computers, Legislative and Legal Drafting, Company Law, Criminal Law, Media Law, Banking Law, Labour and Immigration Law.

In an previous interview, Milton said they had developed their own homegrown diploma and degree programmes, which they would present to TEC for accreditation in due course.