03 Apr 2014

Botswana will have a comprehensive plan with appropriate policies and strategies for all levels of education and training by mid-2014, Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, has said.

Officiating at the second Education and Training Strategic Sector Plan (ETSSP) seminar, Dr Venson-Moitoi, who oversees the education and training sector strategic plan, said the plan was meant to improve the declining learning outcomes in public schools.

Over the years, she said the results had continued to dwindle despite more money being injected into the education system. Therefore, to address this, she said the ministry developed the ETSSP with the support of the European Union in order to improve Botswana’s education sector.

This strategic plan, she said, was launched in October 2012 as a five-year strategic plan running from 2014 to 2019. The ETSSP, she said, would conform fully to the national economic and social development goals identified in NDP 10 and Vision 2016.

Furthermore, Dr Venson-Moitoi said through this strategic plan, the ministry hoped to raise the quality of the country’s education and also transform it from a resource based to a skill based economy.

The Ministry of Education and Skills Development, she said, also hoped to increase access and equity in education, across all the levels and within the entire society, and to increase accountability in the education system for operational efficiency and quality educational service delivery across the entire sector from pre-school to tertiary.

She also added that ETSSP was intended to help Botswana transform its economy from mineral resource-driven to become more diversified and knowledge-based.

In particular, she said the strategic plan would strengthen the match between qualifications and labour market requirements, “thereby ensuring that education outputs are more closely aligned to future employment needs.”

So far, she said significant strides had already been made in increasing access to education and training, adding that enrolment rate at primary school level was now 93 per cent.

“We also take pride in achieving nearly 100 per cent transition from primary school to junior secondary education,” she added. At the end of form three, she said almost 70 per cent of learners go on to study in form four.

The remaining, 30 per cent, she said were admitted in BOCODOL, TVET institutions and private institutions. Continuing implementation of the inclusive policy, Dr Venson-Moitoi said was also bringing closer the goal of education for all by providing educational opportunities for previously un-served disabled learners.  ENDS