31 Jul 2013

Trainers and Allied Workers Union (TAWU) says registration of institutions regarding the two bills on Human Resources Development Council (HRDC) and Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA) is a duplication of mandates.

Addressing members of the press on July 29, the president of TAWU, Mr Allan Keitseng said they had identified a few gaps in the bills which were being discussed by Parliament. He stated that there had not been adequate and effective stakeholders input on the issues surrounding the two bills.

Mr Keitseng said the route to transform BOTA was taken without necessarily understanding that they wanted to create a qualifications authority where everyone could refer matters for clarifications in terms of qualifications. He highlighted that Botswana Tertiary Authority (BOTA) had conflicting mandates of being a regulator and at the same time managing curriculum development.

The authority, he said, should not set the learning standards and rather provide guidelines on standards set independently by institutions. Mr Keitseng said they were raising the issue because there was going to be establishment of teaching council which is going to register practitioners, therefore there is going to be conflicting mandates and roles hence in their view Qualifications Authority should not be dealing with keeping registers of practitioners.

In addition he said Tertiary Education Council (TEC) was responsible for registering tertiary institutions hence should be clear if HRDC is going to be registering the institutions with TEC or whether such TEC’s function is redundant.

He further noted that there are provisions which give the two bodies mandate to micro-manage institutions, such as development of curriculum and model of instruction, which will curtail institutions’ freedom and creativity.

Mr Keitseng stated that the two bodies ’mandates clash with international trends and academic freedoms regarding management and regulation of universities and colleges which have to be granted autonomy status.

TAWU, he said intend to engage Parliament and stakeholders to ensure that legislation should promote efficiency and guide further development of tertiary education, technical, vocational education and training. Ends