26 Mar 2019

Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology has requested to be allocated a total of P4.7 billion for the 2019/20 financial year.

Presenting the budget estimates on March 25, Minister Thapelo Olopeng said the amount comprised a P4.5 billion recurrent budget and a P202.2 million development budget.

Mr Olopeng said the recurrent budget proposed reflected a decrease of P212.5 million.

He said of the amount P1.8 billion would go towards the ministry headquarters, out of which P1.7 billion would be shared among the eight parastatal organisations under the ministry.

He said the Department of Teacher Training and Technical Education would be allocated P365.6 million, whereas the Department of Research, Science and Technology and the Radiation Protection Inspectorate would receive P13.7 million and P14.5 million respectively.

Mr Olopeng said the proposed allocation under development budget would cater for several projects among them, financing of the ongoing construction of the Botswana Innovation Hub icon building, the development of the Labour Market Information System (LMIS) and the development and installation of Radioactive Material Border Detection Systems.

Part of the provision, the minister observed, would go towards research projects such as energy, ICT and electronics, climate change and natural resources.

On the ministry’s achievements during the current financial year, Mr Olopeng indicated that the National Human Resource Development Plan was completed and that the Human Resource Development Council was currently consulting key stakeholders on the draft plan.

He pointed out that the high level impact of implementing the plan would be to produce a globally competitive human resource that would help drive the transformation of the country to a high income status as envisioned in Vison 2036.

On tertiary education sponsorships, the minister said a total of 13 490 new students benefitted from government sponsorship during the current financial year compared to 11 998 in 2017/18.

He added that currently 35 777 students were under government sponsorship, a figure which included 522 students who had been placed externally.

Mr Olopeng said some of the areas that had been prioritised for training were health, engineering, professional accounting, finance and business.

The minister also noted that the ministry had initiated a project to upgrade the Students Loan Management System to assist with the management of student loans information as well as effect improvements in the rate of loan recoveries.

On the work of the Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA), he said it was evident that the mandate of the institution was too broad, as it was expected to undertake registration and evaluation of qualifications, registration and accreditation of educational institutions for general, higher as well as technical and vocational education.

Further, he said the BQA also had the responsibility to register and accredit assessors and moderators.

Noting that in some jurisdictions, the responsibilities were borne by different institutions, he said there was therefore urgent need to review the make of BQA for efficient implementation of the National Credit and Qualifications Framework.

On a different matter, Minister Olopeng said in order to make strides in research and innovation, it was necessary that different players be accorded the opportunity to contribute towards shaping the national research and innovation agenda.

He said it was for the same reason that the ministry continued to engage the private sector as a critical stakeholder in research and innovation. Ends