13 Jul 2015

The quality of education offered by private tertiary education institutions is ascertained through a process that has a number of stages, the Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Kgotla Autlwetse, has said.

Answering a parliamentary question from Gaborone Central MP, Dr Phenyo Butale, Mr Autlwetse said the first step was the registration of tertiary education institutions with Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA), as per the BQA Act, 2013. 

The assessment for quality, he said was performed at three levels, by; academia and industry; the Academic Planning and Development Committee and the BQA Board. 

“Once the institution is registered, the programmes of study to be offered by the institution are assessed by subject matter experts for: programme relevance; student learning outcomes; programme structure; qualification requirements; assessment tools; methodology and scope and sequence, among others.

 They are further put through the BQA approval structures,” he added.

After the programme is approved, Mr Autlwetse said the institution was allowed to run the programme for a year, after which it was presented for accreditation. 

The criteria, he said included; staffing resourcing, delivery and management and assessment of learner attainment, among others. 

The accreditation, he said was valid for five years. 

“Kgolagano College, as is the case with all registered private tertiary institutions, has gone through the processes described above and is registered with BQA,” he said.

Consequently, the assistant minister said the Kgolagano College programmes had also been approved by BQA. 

As per the regulations governing accreditation, he said “Kgolagano has to submit their programmes for accreditation and they have been given up to December 2015 for the same.”

Gaborone Central MP, Dr Butale wanted to know the quality of education offered by private tertiary institutions and BQA’s efforts to accredit institutions, such as Kgolagano College. ENDS