03 Sep 2015

Residents of Gweta have said that they agree to rationalisation of brigades but however proposed that the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) should consider introducing new courses to add to the core courses that have been offered.

This was proposed during a kgotla meeting addressed by the assistant education minister, Mr Kgotla Autlwetse in Gweta recently. One of the residents, Mr Kamogelo Kebonang suggested that one of the new courses that could be introduced should be Agriculture.

She said most of the people in their area including the catchment areas were farmers and with the introduction of new technologies in farming, it would be wise for farmers to go for training at the facility so that they could sharpen their farming skills. 

He noted that with additional courses, students could have a variety instead of having the limited choice from the basic that were being offered. Mr Kebonang further pointed out that such diversity could also be one factor which can help increase enrolment at the institutions since there is always a concern of low enrolment of students across the country for all brigades.

Sharing the sentiments, lecturers at the brigade said that enrolment was low at the centre standing at 108 instead 206. 

One of the lecturers, Mr Shatani Bakganedi, employed as architectural drafting lecturer said he is currently not teaching that but carpentry. He said introducing other courses could attract more applicants to consider brigades even those who have the highest pass marks who currently prefer only universities.

At the same time, he noted that it would also address situations in which students spend three years at brigades doing certificate and another three at technical colleges if they wanted to pursue National Craft Certificate (NCC).

He noted that technical colleges repeat what students did at brigades in the first two years of NCC instead of just focusing on the last part for one to pass and earn an NCC certificate.This, he said, may be as result of shortage of proper numbers for enrolment at all these centres.

In addition, the residents decried lack of employment of graduates from these training institutions, alleging that companies still prefer to employ expatriates instead of the locals.  For his part, Mr Autlwetse said through the rationalisation process, there will be a lot of changes which will take place at the brigades, including name changes. 

He explained that through the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs, government pushes for localisation and labour inspections so that locals could be given preference and at the same time no vacancy is filled before it is advertised.

Through the rationalisation, he further said government aims to upgrade brigades to a stage that school leavers will be attracted. Ends