19 Nov 2015

The government is committed to ensuring that the country’s centres of learning are well resourced, and to this end, the state will invest in the construction of classrooms to augment the ones available.

This was revealed by Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Fidelis Molao during his contribution to the debate on the State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA).

Mr Molao, who is also the Member of Parliament for Tonota North, said the government would avail funds to address the developmental backlog caused by the global economic downturn. “We have a shortage of classrooms in schools across the country, and we will construct more to ensure a better learning environment.  

We also have a huge backlog of teacher’s quarters, and we intend to construct houses to alleviate the current condition,” he said.

Furthermore, Mr Molao said the government would also address the various other developmental areas stalled in recent years such as nurse’s quarters, equipment for clinics and roads.

“The Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) will see infrastructure constructed such as roads that will bypass congested ones such as the A1.  

This will have an effect in assisting the development of the smaller villages which will be accessed by the new roads and help de-congest busy roads such as the A1, possibly reducing the incidences of road accidents,” Mr Molao said.

Meanwhile, the Member of Parliament for Selebi Phikwe West, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse said the SONA needs to be a “critical appraisal of the state of the country in the present,” saying he was disappointed with some existing national challenges not being accentuated in the speech.

He said the levels of poverty and unemployment were unacceptably high in the country, adding that the phenomenon of ‘underemployment’ was also a challenge.

“Apart from the many who are either unemployed or are fully employed but struggling because of low wages, we have many who are graduates employed through Tirelo Setshaba and internship programmes earning far less than what is consummate with their qualifications,” he said.

Mr Keorapetse said the country needs to come up with an industrial strategy that generates wealth and beneficial jobs.

“What we need is a coherent economic development programme with clear targets and measured deliverables. 

For example, a certain amount could be set aside for the establishment of a particular industry in, say, Selebe Phikwe with a number of lasting jobs created,” Mr Keorapetse said.

In addition, he said Selibe Phikwe was likely to be affected by low global commodity prices with copper and nickel affected and the BCL Mine already experiencing cash flow problems as a result. 

“I appeal to the government to inject funds into BCL  to safeguard jobs.  

Also, our area is plagued by a lack of resources in schools, and this needs to be addressed urgently,” Mr Keorapetse said.

He further called for the building and nurturing of democratic oversight institutions, saying since Botswana was coming towards the commemoration of 50 years of independence and the conclusion of the National Vision 2016, the country’s democracy needs to be showing visible progress as opposed to regression. Ends