05 Mar 2015

The director of education planning and research services, Dr Mpho Isaiah, says there is need to address a mismatch of training institutions and the work industry in Botswana so as to improve competency in the workplace.

Speaking at a panel discussion which addressed Vision 2016 pillar of an educated and informed nation, Dr Isaiah said some of the issues that hinder effective education delivery in schools was the competency of teachers who lack continuous in-service training.

However, he stated that these teachers come with high qualifications from institutions of learning but the teaching environment which does not meet their needs end up demoralising them. He said, “When a class is handled by teachers who are not happy there is a possibility of children’s performance declining.”

Dr Isaiah said the learning environment had to be conducive, adding that “it is not the case in some of the schools around the country as there is no maintenance of classrooms that are falling apart due to vandalism caused by children.”

He stated that there was a challenge with the labs in schools as students cannot access them because some teachers are not conversant with computer technology.

However, the director stated that education performance had been declining but the good thing was that education was reaching the unreachable as schools had been spread out around the whole country.

He said the society was diverse as some Batswana were not academically given but also need to be developed on survival skills. Such children should not be dragged into academic inclined education but be made to choose other paths like vocational training skills.

Moreover he highlighted that the drop in performance might be due to the fact that teachers of today are not as passionate as those in the olden days, “some of our teachers today choose teaching as a last resort in their career path and hence if you put children in their care there is high possibility that they don’t perform well.”

For his part, Botswana Communications Regulations Authority (BOCRA) deputy director Corporate Communications, Mr Aaron Nyelesi said the world has entered the technology age hence Botswana has to compete with other countries and make sure Batswana access information and harness technology.

He said the country was connected to the rest of the world and government has invested billions on such connectivity.

He said the national backbone grid has also connected villages with fibre optic to carry information to all corners of the country.

Mr Nyelesi said over three million mobile phone sim cards were in use in Botswana as of March 31, 2014 which indicated that some Batswana carried two to three sim cards.

He stated that Botswana is number five in Africa in terms of access, usage and ICT skills though the country was still lagging behind in adult literacy and tertiary enrollment ratio.

Botswana Institute for Technology Research and Innovation (BITRI) senior researcher, Dr Fred Mampadi said there was need for information technology at pre-primary and primary schools so that children could get exposed to IT at a young age.

Dr Mampadi noted an improvement in IT and use of technology at junior and tertiary levels. Botswana, he added was at a level where IT entrepreneurs had started their own businesses and joined the mainstream economy.

The researcher highlighted that the country was improving in terms of internet accessibility to help achieve an IT oriented society. ENDS