22 Nov 2017

A Francistown councillor, Mr James Kgalajwe has commended government for realising that there is skills mismatch in the country.

Commenting on a presentation by Assistant Minister of Basic Education, Mr Moiseraela Goya to the a full council meeting on November 21, councillor Kgalajwe said the implementation of the Education and Training Sector Strategic Plan (ETSSP) would relieve the country of the current problem of unemployment.

He however, expressed fear that some challenges such as drug and alcohol abuse among the students and the criticism of the public were the likely impediments to the implementation of the strategy.

Councillor Kgalajwe said there was need for government to improve on the work conditions and welfare of the teachers in order for the strategy to be successful.

Councillor Joe Gunda of Somerset East said the North East region was doing well academically, but the worrying factor was that teachers were not rewarded accordingly.

He suggested that teachers who performed exceptionally well in class should be given the opportunity to be promoted to higher scales, but continue teaching instead of being elevated to managerial positions.

He observed that continuous assessment envisaged in the ETSSP would not be possible if classes still continued to have 40 and above students.Councillor Gaone Majere of Tshwaragano said government had come up with good strategies that failed to bear fruits and it was high time government ensured the implementers working conditions were satisfactory in order for them to be effective.

Councillor Cornelius Gopolang of Kanana suggested that there was no need to keep students who could pass the Primary School Leaving Examination (while at standard six for the entire seven years at primary school.

Councillor Lekang Badubi called on the Ministry of Basic Education to intervene in addressing the issues that usually emanated when teachers were engaged by Botswana Examination Council to mark examination scripts.

Earlier in his address, Mr Goya briefed councillors about the mandate of the new Ministry of Basic Education and that in order to address the skills mismatches and transform the economy from being dependable on minerals but skills, the ministry came up with ETSSP.

He said over the years, curriculum was poorly delivered as more focus was on teaching, but through ETSSP there would be Outcome Based Education, which would combine competency continuous assessment marks rather than examination.

He said there was need for transformation because the future was uncertain and the country was no longer sure it would continue to mine diamonds.

Mr Goya said by the year 2020 pre-schools would be rolled out to all primary schools in the country.

He invited all partners who were willing to make the strategy a reality to come on board.

He noted that the ministry’s database had 9 000 unemployed teachers and with the implementation of the strategy, some of them would be engaged to reduce the challenge of having 50 students in one class.

He however said the problem of shortage of classrooms would continue to persist once the number of students in one class is reduced.

He said through the ETSSP, Batswana would not only be trained for Botswana market, but become globally competitive. ENDS