07 Dec 2015

The Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development Mr Fidelis Molao says his ministry has not yet paid the University of Botswana (UB) tuition fees for semester one, Academic year 2015/2016.

 Answering a question in Parliament  from the MP for Gaborone Central, Dr Phenyo Butale, Mr Molao said tuition fees are paid upon the institution invoicing the ministry for the current students, noting that UB has not yet submitted its invoice for semester one of 2015/16 which began in August.

Mr Molao explained that this will be paid within 14 days once the university submits its invoices to the ministry. 

The last payment to the university in the form of tuition was in November 2014.
For the year 2015/16 financial year, UB was allocated a subvention of P704 million payable quarterly in four equal installments.

 To date P528 million of the allocated amount has been paid directly to the university.

Meanwhile the assistant minister said the understanding is that the Student representative Council (SRC) (and other university organs) running costs are funded from the university subvention allocation; hence they do not believe that the non-payment of the tuition fees has in any way affected the university and its organs such as the SRC.

Dr Butale had asked the minister to confirm whether his ministry has not paid UB tuition fees for students sponsored by government. 

He had also wanted the minister to state when the last payment by his ministry was done and how this has affected the university and organs such as the SRC which depend on the subvention fund that is accrued from deductions on “this very payment.” Ends