06 Mar 2016

Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Fidelis Molao has urged parastatals under his ministry to sign the stakeholder compact.

The compact is a contract between the shareholder and the board and touches on key elements such as the mandate and strategic outlook as well as governance, roles and responsibilities.

Speaking during a consultative meeting with heads of MoESD parastatals at Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) last week, Mr Molao said the shareholder compact was a commitment between his ministry and MoESD parastatals.

The latter include BIUST, University of Botswana, Botswana Accountancy College, Botswana Qualifications Authority, Botswana Examinations Council, Human Resource Developemt Council and Botswana College of Distance and Open Learning.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the ministry’s expectations of such entities and issues of the budget, stakeholder compact, performance monitoring, annual reports, research output and the development of partnerships.

He said parastatals were expected to have completed signing the shareholder compact by April, adding that the compact would help the ministry and the parastatals to work collectively.

He said his ministry understands the role played by various parastals in the education sector, and that they came up with a five-year strategic plan to change the way they have been doing things.

He added that the ministry wants to improve academic results, training methods and to produce fully grounded learners who could face the world.

He said the compact would help measure achievements and failures. He also urged parastatals to submit their annual reports on time, adding that they should attend to the shortcomings identified through the audit.

He also implored them to carry out research that would influence national policies and bring about technological advancement.

“We want to be a knowledge based economy and Botswana to be a centre of education in the region and internationally,” he said.

Furthermore Mr Molao also  implored them to seek partnerships or networks with recognised international organisations to enhance their work.

In addition, he raised concern over the poor BGCSE results, adding that some members of the public have developed negative perceptions about the ministry.

He said it was upon all stakeholders including the ministry and parastatals to prove them wrong.

For his part, the acting deputy permanent secretary, Mr Labane Mokgosi said the ministry developed a five-year strategy which was on its second year.

The strategy calls for the establishment of the tertiary education department within the ministry to lead and coordinate the development of tertiary education and educational policies by end of 2015.

He said it has not been implemented. Ends