24 Jul 2019

Government should review teaching curriculum at Vocational Training Centres (VTC) to align them with current market demands, says Francistown South MP, Mr Wynter Mmolotsi. 

Debating the Botswana Examination Council (BEC) Amendment Bill, which seeks to among others, allow BEC to transform into a National Assessment Body, Mr Mmolotsi said vocational training courses should be designed to produce graduates with specialised occupation, which was directly linked with the nation’s productivity and competitiveness.

Mr Mmolotsi  highlighted the significance of vocational training institutions in producing sustainable human resources since the institutions produced hand on graduates. 

Therefore, he said promotion of technical and vocational education, was what the country needed most to  achieve sustainable development.

He said brigades should be acknowledged for the role they had played in producing marketable graduates who not only sought to be employed, but were also keen on creating job opportunities for others as evidenced by the number of welding and auto mechanics entrepreneurs in the many parts of the country.

Since its inception, he said, brigades had struggled to gain the recognition it deserved, which had led to the widening gap between the supply and demand for skilled manpower across various industries. 

The shortage of skilled manpower, Francistown South legislator said had translated directly into unemployment among an increasing number of students who graduate every year and were forced to be re-trained in order to become marketable.

He said technical and vocational graduates were also on a high demand in the mining sector since the core business in the mining sector required technical skills acquired through vocational training. 

“The mining industry is currently short on qualified and skills artisans therefore government need to develop VTCs and make them more appealing for student enrollment,” he said.

Also contributing to the debate was specially elected MP, Mr Mephato Reatile, who welcomed the amendment Bill.

 However, he was against the absolute powers bestowed on the ministers to appoint the board as per the amendment of section 4  of the Act on the constitution of and qualifications of Board of Council section 4(2).

 Mr Reatile decried that ministers appointments of board members in often cases, led to favouritism as some board members were not appointed on merit but rather on nepotism.

 Similarly, Gaborone Central MP, Dr Phenyo Butale challenged government to strip off ministers the power to appoint board members decrying of the composition of incompetent parastatal board members who were appointed on favoritism.

Dr Butale stated that incompetent board members had led to a total collapse of cooperate governance in the country.

 He said it was worrying that the proposed amendments continued to centralise power in the hands of the ministers to appoint governing boards.

 Dr Butale remained  optimistic that the Amendment of section 5 of the Act to give BEC the mandate to manage and conduct examination and assessments in general education, would contribute positively towards producing quality human resource. ENDS