15 Feb 2013

The Ministry of Education has no plans or capacity to provide students who are to upgrade their qualifications with full time class attendance, says Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development Mr Patrick Masimolole.

Answering a question in Parliament on February 13, Mr Masimolole said prior to learners being admitted to the Back-to-School programme, they go through a counselling session and induction to accommodate self-learning materials. He said there were many reasons why students were not successful in their examinations.

Mr Masimolole said a student who then opts to come back to school would ordinarily have a set of goals to achieve and, with the support of the parents in this endeavour, would increase the chances for success.

“Since learners are upgrading, they are required to register for a limited number of subjects at a time leaving them with lesser workload than those on full time basis’’, he said.

Mr Masimolole said as they would be re-learning what they had done before, they should go through the programme and succeed.

Member of Parliament for Gaborone West South, Mr Botsalo Ntuane had asked the minister if she was aware that although the Back-to-School initiative was well meaningful, it was ineffectual in the case of those who were required to upgrade their qualifications with Botswana College of Distance and Open Learning.

Mr Ntuane said if they were unsuccessful while attending classes, their chances of success were limited. 

He had also wanted to know if the minister would make provision for such students to attend full time classes for subjects they intend to re-write and sit for final examination with other pupil at the end of the year. ENDS