31 Jul 2016

Students in some private tertiary institutions have complained to the Ministry of Education and Skills Development and Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA) about the standard of education offered in some institutions.

This was said by Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Fidelis Molao, when responding to a question in Parliament from Francistown West MP, Mr Ignatius Moswaane.

The complaints, Mr Molao said, had revolved around issues such as teaching space, practicals and teaching resources.

“Whenever such matters are raised, the BQA, which has been established to monitor the quality of education in our institutions, intervenes and this includes conducting inspections and taking remedial action thereafter,” he said

 “My ministry has not conducted any customer satisfaction surveys, but we do engage with students in schools and colleges at every opportunity and through these dialogues issues of education standards have arisen,” he added.

However, he said he was not aware of any specific case of bias in the suspension of Student Representative Council (SRC) members by the management of private tertiary institutions. 

Student Representative Councils, the assistant minister said, were an integral part of an education provider’s governance body, adding that it was a BQA requirement for education providers to ensure that SRC’s were established, supported and involved in the decision making process. 

The roles of the management and the SRC, he said, were laid out in the governance structures of institutions. The roles, he said, were administrative and it was not possible for the BQA to prescribe how the structures should function. 

Furthermore, Mr Molao said he was aware that most private schools and private tertiary institutions were dominated by foreign lectures and teachers. 

Through BQA, he said the ministry would carry out surveys on the number of teachers in private primary and secondary schools by the end of this financial year to establish; the number of foreign teachers in private schools, ratios of local vs foreign teachers, disciplines offered by foreign and local teachers and if there was a localisation plan in place.

The results, he said would guide the ministry to come up with suitable recommendations for implementation to resolve the problem. 

Additionally, the assistant minister said he was aware of complaints by undergraduates as well as graduates about substandard education offered in some private tertiary institutions. In cases where there were students/learners complaints, he said there was a procedure in place, which entailed sending a team to investigate the complaints.

Thereafter, Mr Molao said the team produced a report about the outcome of their investigations, and that the report was shared with both the institutional management and SRC. “Botswana Qualification Authority discusses with the two parties and coordinates the development of the implementations plan. The institution is required by BQA to produce regular progress reports.”

He said the above process was used to resolve complaints of students from the following institutions; New Era, Gaborone Technical College, Francistown College of Technical and Vocational Education and Boitekanelo College.

“In addition, BQA is in the process of signing a memorandum of understanding with the national SRC forum to deal with challenges they face in institutions across board,” he said.

The assistant minister said “we also use social media mechanism to avail ourselves to the learners and we are also planning to conduct an annual leaner satisfaction survey to improve our service delivery as BQA by end of financial year.’

Mr Moswaane wanted to know if Mr Molao was aware that most private schools and private tertiary institutions were dominated by foreign lecturers and teachers and of complaints by undergraduates as well as graduates. ENDS