15 Sep 2016

The Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Fidelis Molao, says his ministry has a P1 million deficit.

Addressing education ministry staff in Jwaneng on Monday (September 12), Mr Molao said  even though his ministry got the largest share of the government's budget, the funds were not enough. 

“Our ministry gets 20 per cent of the budget while the other 15 ministries share the remaining 80 per cent. We have the largest number of employees and about 55 per cent of our budget goes towards staff salaries,” he said.

He said student financing for tertiary education required P2.1 billion and only a little was left for welfare and maintenance issues. He noted that even though they appreciated that deserving students should be sponsored for tertiary education, the ministry was faced with budgetary constraints.

Mr Molao said sponsorship letters were delayed this financial year because the 2016/17 budget could only cater for continuing students.

“We had to ask for a supplementary budget so that we could sponsor new students,” he noted. However, the assistant minister said the ministry was not performing well despite having the biggest share of the budget. He said out of a total of 16 ministries, education came 15th in the previous review, moving a few steps up to position 12 in the latest review.

He said such a performance was unsatisfactory and the aim was to keep improving to attain better results. This, he noted, could be achieved if stakeholders played part in the education sector. He called on parents and teachers to work together to come up with workable solutions that could bring good results.

He also urged staff members to only work overtime when it was necessary to do so, and that it should be authorised. He said this was one way of being cost effective and could save  government money if used appropriately.

On the issue of training, Mr Molao said the emphasis was on self-development and in-service training due to budgetary constraints. He encouraged the employees to use the available opportunities to upgrade themselves because  government could not afford to do so.

He said as a way of enhancing in-service training, the ministry's plan was to upgrade BOCODOL into a fully-fledged university so as to increase its capacity.

Furthermore, he noted that they were working on rebranding DVET to make it appealing as well as erasing the stereotype attached to technical and vocational education.

“We have to change our mindsets because the economy needs the skills that are offered by technical colleges,” he said.

Among other issues that the staff raised, teachers decried overstaying especially in rural areas.  They said some teaching staff members had to stay at one place for longer periods because other people did not want to be transferred.

Even though she applauded the ministry for purchasing BHC houses for secondary school teachers, the Morama Junior school head Ms Mpho Lesego pleaded with the ministry to come up with a plan for non-teaching staff.

“Rent in Jwaneng is expensive and most of the non-teaching staff cannot afford it. The ministry should consider transferring them to their home villages or where they have accommodation,” she said. Another teacher, Mr Tshepho Diphale said there was a backlog of payments in primary schools. He said such payments included subsistence allowance, temporary teachers' payments as well as acting allowances. ENDS