07 Sep 2018

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Basic Education, Dr Colley Monkge advocates for strengthening in the school system for better results.

Speaking before the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday, Dr Monkge said there should be quality in schools in terms of leadership and teacher training to attain better results.

Dr Monkge said quality education could help to deliver key skills required by the labour market and play a vital role in the country’s economy.

He also said for education to play a meaningful role, there needed to be constant research  in the practices and needs of the workplace, and teachers needed to be involved with continuous training to keep their skills up to date.

Dr Monkge said his ministry had been the biggest consumer of budget, but indicated that since 2000 there had been a fall in education results as they had not been corresponding with the budget allocated.

“There is bigger budget year in and year out, but there are no tangible results,” he said, arguing for resources to be made available.

He mentioned that mobilising resources in the 21st century was an important marker for Botswana as she sought to tackle her skills challenges to compete in the global world.

He added that mobilising resources needed to include high quality education and delivery of good results as well as the right skills to drive growth.

He noted that today’s curriculum focuses more on the relationship between employers, as such training should be improved, possibly by strengthening the role of the education sector and training authorities as intermediaries as well as by creating platforms for co-operation. “Today’s education is a reflection of the whole system, the key elements being; human and financial resources as well as accountability,” he said.

Dr Monkge further mentioned that it was also important that education should not only develop high-level technical skills, but also invest in basic and transversal skills development, such as critical thinking and problem-solving.

He also said such included strengthening teachers in order for them to deliver quality education and for both the learners and educators to be globally competitive ‘as Botswana is aspiring to be part of the family of nations that are working hard to improve learning outcomes”.

Dr Monkge also informed PAC that the ministry of education had since developed partnership through MoA with some private entities such as Mascom and Orange, who provide free Wi-Fi to some schools for the betterment of ICT learning.

Regarding the Adopt-a-School initiative, he stated that it had been lagging behind in the past years, adding that some private companies had since developed cold feet, suspecting that the contributing factor could be unsatisfying school results. ENDS