13 Oct 2016

President Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama says the education ministry was split in order to improve efficiency in education provision.

Speaking during a tour of Gaborone Technical College (GTC) on Thursday (October 13), President Khama said the ministry in its old format was too big with many functions.

“The Ministry of Education and Skills Development as it was then was really big, dealing with basic education and all elements of tertiary education. It was a really big task to expect one ministry to do all these

elements.
That is why we have decided to divide the ministry basically into three. We now have the ministry responsible for basic education, we have tertiary education; and then we have the skills development,” the President said.

The President was briefed by the college leadership about the state of the institution and later toured some facilities before planting a tree near the main entrance to the college.

GTC principal, Mr Michael Gwebu explained that the college had enrolment capacity of about 1 000, but there were 701 students currently studying at the institution.

He said the college offered technical and vocational programmes among them the Botswana Technical Education Programme (BTEP), City and Guilds, and National Craft Certificate.

Apart from empowering students with skills, Mr Gwebu said the college operated a mini hotel and had collaboration on hospitality and tourism with the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources, Conservation and Tourism.

According to the principal, the college had 65 cases of drop-outs some of which were due to financial and accommodation challenges for students.

Furthermore, Mr Gwebu said the college experienced challenges of staff accommodation, staff competition with industry especially in specialised areas and maintenance of plants and boilers. ENDS