25 May 2016

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education Dr Theophilus Mooko has said there is a dire need to reconsider certain things at the ministry.

Dr Mooko who appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) stated that there is need to review the education policy adding that the new policy gave priority to student financing at tertiary level but failed to have sufficient funding for basic education.

Dr Mooko said more emphasis should be placed on primary education for a Motswana child, saying it looked like the policy was intentionally designed to produce failures by putting more emphasis on the next level of education at the expense of the other.

He said for that reason, primary schools around the country were underfunded and therefore faced with shortage of basic things like textbooks, shortage of food, classroom equipment, and ICT resources and other consumables.

He also said lower or ground roots schools were challenged with low pass rates, social challenges, high level of teenage pregnancy, drug, alcohol abuse and other stuff.

He requested everyone, parents and teachers to work collectively to own the education system. ENDS

Dr Mooko further stated that schools are terrorised by teenage pregnancy adding that over 400 students have gotten pregnant since last year up to now.

He mentioned that the Sebina saga is not anything new to the educational fraternity, “it is just now that it has gotten out to the public and now that it involves an influential public person” he added, saying otherwise student/adult relationships are common.

On another issue in regard to tertiary institutions in Botswana, Dr Mooko also pointed out that education had not been adequately geared to the needs of the country and the job market, saying the challenge was to place greater emphasis on technical and practical subjects, “the skills that are most needed,” he pointed out.

He said programmes offered in institutions heled students to graduate but not employable.

He pointed out that there should be a step up level of research to know what to train in, adding that there should be value for money.

He said the other thing is that students should be able to compete for a sponsorship grant.

Meanwhile Dr Mooko also indicated that there have not been much success in recovering back the loans as records management in the ministry has been poor.

He also pointed out that the ministry is still struggling in collecting revenue for people who had acquired sponsorship loans.

He acknowledged that some people have not paid simply because there were no records, adding that they have since rectified and improved the system saying they would step up the process of recovering loans.

Regarding the dwindling pass rate for government schools as compared to private schools, Dr Mooko responded that as long as textbooks remained insufficient, and parents lacked commitment then there was a problem.

He said resources like school library and the fact that parents did not care to be involved for better achievement was a strong force behind poor school results.

He stated that parental involvement could make a difference in a child’s education.

He also said shortage of textbooks had adverse effects on performance because students had no reference material when they were given homework, saying those were some of the reasons for poor performance in government schools.

PAC member, MP Dithapelo Keorapetse had raised a concern that year in and out, the school leaving results were deteriorating whereas in private schools the pass rate was at 100 per cent.

MP Keorapetse also argued that a good education system should empower citizens to become the best producers of goods and services.

He pointed out that it should produce entrepreneurs who would create employment through the establishment of new enterprises, not as it was the case now where there were many unemployed graduates.

Another member, MP Ignatius Moswaane needed answers as to why students continued to have automatic progression yet such learners could neither read nor write.

MP Moswaane was of the view that children should repeat a standard until they achieved required competency.

He argued that some schools in Francistown constituency had not had textbooks nor fed since last year.

MP Moswaane also said the Target 20 000 programme students are also not receiving living allowance, not received learning material yet the institutions they are enrolled in continue being paid.