15 Mar 2017

Permanent secretary at the Ministry of Basic Education, Ms Grace Muzila says the international economic analysis indicates that Botswana has a challenge regarding approximately developed skills and competencies for the economy, while on the financial situation internally does not allow re-skilling, up-skilling processes to meet the demands.

Ms Muzila said at the Life Long Learning (LLL) consultative conference in Gaboorne recently.

She said the situation demanded that Botswana re-examined the education and training system, mobilises resources across all sectors and strengthens the LLL  sector to promote popular participation.

Ms Muzila, however commended BOCODOL for the immediate establishment and restructuring of the then Department of Non-Formal Education and the Centre for Continuing Education.

She said the private sector tertiary education system had not taken up the LLL with the same enthusiasm, adding that the programme had suffered lack of regulation and governance to direct design and implementation of programmes.

She said the Education and Training Sector Strategic Plan (ETSSP) placed significant emphasis on long learning and recognised its need throughout the education and training system in the country, hence the conference’s aim to dialogue the possible strategies for effectively implementing LLL.

“It is clear from the ETSSP that government is concerned about the challenges that the country faces in education. These include all levels of the education system, issues of access and equity as well as quality and relevance in education and training,” she said.

Ms Muzila further said LLL, as a sub-sector, laid emphasis on the importance of continuous learning, adding that the strategies were deployed  for the purpose of promoting the ideals of continuous learning, which included strengthening of opportunities for equal access to institutions of public education, provision of a second chance educational opportunity for citizens, promotion of work based learning and creation of smoother transition from school to adult life by combining education and employment.

She said LLL  did not translate only into non-formal and informal education , and advised those with formal education mandate to also think of LLL.

“We all have to be thinking about how best we should develop potentially competent citizens, relevant citizens and tougher human capital,” she said.

She acknowledged that initiatives laid out in the ETSSP, which were aimed at developing a life long mind-set for the mainstream basic education, adding that expediting such developments would bring positive transformation to the mainstream, the Early Childhood Care and Education implementation of the retention programme, improvement of reading, mathematics and science, institutionalisation of remediation, migration to an Outcome-Based Education (OBE) curriculum, improvement of leadership and management of Institutions, Improvement in learner discipline and development of key skills and competencies among mainstream learners.

She also said the nation needed to be continually informed about the demands of the labour market and what opportunities were available to the citizens for reshaping and making them relevant to the market.

“A robust career guidance system is a must for such an agile system, adding that both the key skills and technical trades programmes should have strategies for taking on board the disadvantaged members of the society. Those who have responsibility to prepare people for the labour market should show creativity and strategies to include the disadvantages members of the society,” she said.

The conference, Ms Muzila said it was focused on strengthening governance and coordination of the LLL implementation plan, establish the LLL culture to promote continuous learning and improve access and equity to quality education as well as mapping a way forward to secure the high quality implementation of the LLL  programmes.

The conference attracted a good cross section of participants including designers and drivers of programmes, stretching across education, training, the world of work and community experience. ENDS