The youth presented a petition to the Ministry of Education through Kgatleng District Commissioner Moemedi Letina on Friday. The youth said that the government's promise that children would not be sent away from school because of school fees has been betrayed. They said Education Minister Jacob Nkate does not have the courtesy and moral decency to apologise for lying to the nation. In the petition, the youth said the problem of children being kept out of school because parents are unable to pay fees is fast becoming a crisis. They stated that education must not be reduced to a private commodity to be bought and sold on the market. "It must remain an entitlement and an instrument of struggle against poverty, ignorance, prejudice, exploitation and human degradation," the petition said. It said government must act on society's behalf and shoulder the burden of investing in education. The youth contended that Botswana has performed relatively better than many African countries in the provision of basic education. It must therefore not take the retrogressive step to negate the modest achievements by re-introducing school fees.
The BNF youth said the removal of fees would remove further obstacles to the universalisation of education. They challenged the government to respect the key international instruments it has ratified to safeguard the principles of free and compulsory education. "It must be recalled that when Education for Kagisano abolished school fees, it correctly argued that school fees are a significant constraint to access to education. It convincingly demonstrated that there was a decline in enrolments in 1967 when fees were introduced but that enrolments rose by 60 percent when fees were reduced in 1973." The youth said that enrolment rose further in 1980 when fees were completely abolished and the re-introduction thus effectively brings back the barrier to school attendance for the poverty stricken masses.
