24 May 2018

Senior management at the Ministry of Basic Education have been advised to strive towards a cordial working relationship in order to address challenges.

The call was made by Minister Bagalatia Arone at the ministry’s senior management retreat in Mahalapye on Tuesday.

Mr Arone said an affectionate working relationship between officials and politicians would improve the performance of the ministry.

“I am still new here and I want to be advised accordingly,” he said, adding that with precise advice, he would be able to execute his mandate as a cabinet minister.

“I believe I have men and women who are qualified to do the job. I believe in you and therefore I am here to remind you that you are capable of fixing challenges of the education system,” he said.

Minister Arone appealed to ministry management to be proactive so that they could timely and adequately deal with some of the challenges faced by the ministry.

“Your monitoring tools must be well defined and be well communicated with teachers,” he said.

He said the forum should be used to deliberate on issues of concern.

Mr Arone said the ministry’s aim was to develop globally competitive learners.

He said as they strived towards improving educational facilities, the focus must also be on the development of the human resource.

He said the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) was vital towards attaining a knowledge-based society. Mr Arone also appealed to management to emphasise more on the improvement of ICT.

He said the ministry must focus more on customer satisfaction.

Mr Arone said the ministry was labelled by the public as a failure due to poor academic results.

He said more emphasis must be paid to providing a conducive learning environment.

He also said an environment ideal for learning would only be achieved by empowering teachers and the support staff.

He added that a well reformed education system must respond to challenges of society.

The minister said schools must be ready to receive learners, and that anything hindering that process must be dealt with immediately.

Minister Arone also appealed to the ministry management to cooperate, collaborate and consult towards achieving a common goal. “We are striving towards one government and therefore as a ministry we cannot operate in isolation,” he added.

On other issues, Minister Arone stressed the importance of early childhood development.

He said the ministry was not well equipped to support early childhood development, and called on the management to insure that the human resource and infrastructure was ready to develop education at the grassroots level.

Mr Arone also added that implementing the curriculum was a challenging assignment as a result of financial constraints.

He said infrastructure and the human resource must be in a position to deliver the syllabus.

Mr Arone said for the education system to run smoothly, the leadership must be well defined and in a position to carry out its mandate.

He said teachers must be motivated to do their job, and that  welfare issues must be addressed in order for academic results to improve. He added that the ministry’s leadership must be innovative in order to achieve more with the scarce resources at their disposal.

Meanwhile, Assistant Minister Thato Kwerepe also emphasised the need for team work. Mr Kwerepe said education was the solution to all challenges.

He also advised that management forums must be used to deliberate on issues affecting performance. “Society is not pleased with the performance of our schools,” he added.

He appealed to school management to be focused as they had the power to collapse or elevate the education system. “Let us engage each other and focus on what we are mandated to do,” he said. Ends