18 Jun 2017

Ministry of Basic Education (MoBE) contributes immensely to the development of the country’s human capital, empowering citizens to become future workers or creators of employment.

Assistant minister in the ministry, Mr Moiseraele Goya revealed this in an interview with BOPA.

He said apart from directly creating jobs for those involved in the education sector, the ministry assisted the general economy by providing basic training.

“Our ministry is responsible for pre-primary, primary, secondary and out of school education, as well as the development and evaluation of curriculum.

Through educating and training citizens across the country, we give ordinary people access to the job market and wealth creation. Education empowers people out of poverty,” Mr Goya said. He said government invested heavily in the education sector, and tangible benefits had already been realised.

“Over the years, education has been getting a large share of the national budget and as a consequence, Botswana became the first Southern African country to attain universal access to primary schooling. After the reorganisation of the

Ministry of Education and Skills Development into separate ministries, we still had MoBE getting P6.8 billion in the 2017 budget presented earlier this year; the highest of any ministry,” Mr Goya said.

In order to ensure that no one is left out of attaining education, government has introduced pre-primary schooling in 476 primary schools across the country.

“Research has revealed that children who have been exposed to pre-primary schooling tend to do better than those who have not. In order to ensure that learners in rural and remote areas are not left out, government has introduced pre-primary schooling using classrooms in our existing primary schools across the country,” Mr Goya said.

He further said by 2020, they intend to have extended the pre-primary schooling programme across the country.

Mr Goya says the move would coincide with the ministry’s five-year strategy.

“We also have curriculum review due for completion in 2019. As a ministry we intend to focus not only on academic performance, but through our Multiple Pathways strategy, we will ensure that those children who are gifted in technical and vocational subjects are offered requisite training,” Mr Goya said.

Also, he said that his ministry had worked on empowering Batswana through the procurement of goods and services from citizens.

The ministry purchases farm produce from Batswana farmers to be used in the school-feeding programme.

Bakeries in different villages also sell bread to schools, as do tailors who make school uniforms.

Through the government’s Economic Stimulus Programme, school expansion through the maintenance of classrooms and staff house construction has led to job creation and benefits deriving to citizen companies.

In order to further increase education funding, the ministry has engaged development partners such as the European Union for technical expertise and financial assistance. Also, the Adopt-a-School programme has led to companies, individuals and alumni associations further assisting in the development of education in the country.

Mr Goya also said they contribute to the fight against HIV/AIDS by educating school children on prevention.

The ministry also supplements the  fight against corruption through their anti-corruption unit, which has officers at MoBE outstations across the country.

These initiatives contribute to the attainment of government’s pledge card, which has five priority areas; making job creation a number one priority; taking Batswana out of poverty; increasing education funding; eliminating mother to child transmission of HIV as well as fighting corruption in all its manifestations.  BOPA