08 Feb 2015

Parliament on Friday February 6 welcomed a motion asking government to turn the old Tatitown Primary School in Francistown into a vocational and technical training centre.

Tabling the motion, MP of Francistown West, Mr Ignatius Moswaane, argued that establishment of such institution shall provide more opportunities for youth in the Francistown area to acquire vocational education.

He said the buildings, erected in the 1960s and operational until 15 years ago when government built a new Tatitown Primary School, have remained docile for a long period now.

“The Francistown City Council at the moment has no plan in place on what it intends to do with those buildings. 

Let use them to help youth who need to be trained on vocational education like mechanics, carpentry and others,” said the Botswana Democratic Party legislator.

He complained that letting the buildings remain unused and getting vandalised for over a decade amounted to wastefulness of infrastructure.

Several MPs who debated the motion supported it with Gaborone Bonnington South MP, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe arguing that Botswana’s education system must be reconfigured so that it produces graduates with tangible skills rather than placing more emphasis on white collar jobs.

“ The Umbrella for Democratic Change(UDC) proposes that government should spend additional P800 million on technical and vocational education. 

Therefore we see the motion as one of the steps required to increase the offering of vocational and technical education in Botswana,” said the UDC legislator.

Kanye South MP, Mr Abram Kesupile said the motion was important as its approval will help to give the youth better opportunities because the institution will cut the distance youth from Francistown travel to access vocational education at other brigades.

Selebi Phikwe West MP, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse said skills mismatch is the biggest challenge facing our economy.

“Some graduates that our colleges produce do not help our economy that much because it is not what the market requires. We will get plenty of skills required by the market from brigades. It is important to develop this important sub-sector of our education which is vocational education,” he said.

Although he also spoke in support of the motion, the MP of Palapye Mr Moiseraela Goya, who is also assistant minister of Education and Skills Development, explained that the ministry has no current plans to establish a new brigade in Francistown. 

He said the second city is presently well served when it comes to provision of vocational tertiary education, with the Francistown College of Technical and Vocational Education and several brigades in nearby places like Shashe, Marobela, Zwenshambe and Senyawe.

The assistant minister said all those facilities are at present operating below their full enrolment capacity. ENDS