26 Mar 2019

Minister of Defence, Justice and Security says in the past 10 years 121 refugee children qualified for tertiary education.

Minister Shaw Kgathi said 34 of them managed to proceed to tertiary schools while 87 did not get sponsorship to go to tertiary schools. Of the 34 students who went to tertiary, he said 25 were sponsored by the UNHCR while nine were self-sponsored.

The Minister further said no refugee received government sponsorship for tertiary education as government does not provide education sponsorship to foreigners. He explained that basic (elementary) education is from pre-school to primary level and refugees in Botswana are accorded elementary education through the primary school situated at Dukwi camp.

Mr Kgathi said refugees are fully sponsored for basic education (up to Form Five) and government provides them with education beyond the elementary level provided for in the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.

He further said the object of Article 22 (2) of the Convention is that refugees must be given the same treatment as other foreigners and that the contracting states must recognise the school certificates they possess at the time they are granted refugee status.

In Botswana, he said, refugees are not denied access to education beyond elementary level and the school certificates they bring with them at the time they seek asylum are recognised subject to the evaluation by the competent qualifications authority.

Earlier, the minister said his mandate relates to refugees not stateless persons.

Specially elected MP Mephato Reatile had wanted the minister to state how many stateless persons and the refugees qualified for university and tertiary education after completion of BGCSE during the past 10 years given that the Convention relating to the status of Stateless Persons of 1954, article 22(i) read with the Convention of 1951 states that they have equal right to elementary education as nationals.

Subsection 2 of the same article 22(ii) affords them the right to education other than elementary education. Mr Reatile also wanted to know how many of them received government sponsorship for tertiary education during the past 10 years; if not, why. Ends