I will sort out poor quality in education-Venson-Moitoi

BABOKI KAYAWE
Staff Writer | Tuesday October 23, 2012 00:00

 

The Minister of Education and Skills Development, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi made this announcement at a gathering at the launch of the Education and Training Strategic Sector Plan (ETSSP) in Gaborone yesterday.According to Venson-Moitoi, the body will ensure that learners have access to and are provided with high quality and relevant courses and training. Moreover, it aims at positioning local training institutions to increase their recognition and make them sought after.

However, she said the nation has to be cognizant of the fact that the success of such initiatives, are to a large extend, dependent upon the performance of other areas within the education and training sector: 'It therefore means that we should view and support the change process across the entire sector,' Venson-Moitoi went on to say, 'otherwise, we risk weak links within the chain that would render the entire initiative unsuccessful' she added.

The establishment of ETSSP, which is an ongoing process, encompasses all education sector strategies, programmes and services with an overarching goal of guiding prioritization and resource allocation for delivery improved education and skills development services. The plan will focus on reforms in pre-primary and primary, secondary, technical and vocational training and skills development and tertiary education teacher development.

Special attention will be paid to five key areas of service support namely; functional and organisational reform, financial and budget management reforms, human resources management and staffing reforms and curriculum and delivery. 

'The ETSSP will be developed in accordance with the National Development Plan 10 programmatic approach, reviewing policy objectives, strategies, programme impact, cost and sequencing of programmes and financing,' Venson-Moitoi said.  Adding that it will assume a holistic approach to the challenge encompassing both economic and social outputs from the education sector. Essentially, she said, it will place the learners and the education services they receive at the forefront of the agenda for reforming the services they receive.

Still at the same forum, the head of the European delegation (EU) Gerard McGovern recognized these important changes urging that they should strive to improve service delivery to the pupils and students. McGovern called on government to embark on the process with an open mind, and with the single goal of ensuring that every child has access to quality education in mind.

'The virtuous circle of making a plan based on broad consultation, costing it, allocating a budget, implementing the activities of that plan, taking on board feedback from rigorous monitoring and evaluation and, in turn, feeding that back to subsequent planning is a critical process that applies to the implementation of any strategy,' he said.

The EU is a longstanding partner of the MoESD,and has promised to follow the process closely, to observe and learn from it.