23 Feb 2020

The government is probing workable solutions to address challenges facing vocational and technical training in the country, Vice President, Mr Slumber Tsogwane has said.

Answering a question on the crisis afflicting vocational and technical education training, in Parliament on Thursday, Mr Tsogwane acknowledged various challenges facing that sector.

“I must confirm that students in brigade institutions and certificate offering technical colleges have, over time, exceeded institutional capacity. How learners were admitted in excess of capacity happens to be symptomatic of a historically underlying resource-constraint or under-investment problem, which has festered for long,” Mr Tsogwane.

Confining his response, as per the question, to the challenges faced by students who were enrolled during 2018 and whose intake for training began in January 2019, Mr Tsogwane said the problems require immediate corrective attention.

“In good faith, a lot of learners were enrolled at the beginning of 2019 with an anticipation or expectation that resources would be raised elsewhere in government and timely allocated.  This action was in part, informed by a historical practice of rotating or shifting students, as a way of optimising limited resources,” Mr Tsogwane said.

He admitted that while this was understandable in the perspective of up-skilling many youth in an environment of limited resources, the strategy had since proven untenable and a different approach out to have been pursued.

“The responsible ministry has since re-looked at things and is continually consulting with key stakeholders which include learners, regulators and parliament with a view of correcting.  At the present moment no one has been called to account, but I agree that this is a matter that needs to be addressed,” Mr Tsogwane said.

The Vice President also admitted that character building was not part of the curriculum in vocational and technical education and that the infusion of that programme was aimed at enhancing an improved work ethic among the students while dealing with existing social problems afflicting unemployed youth. “It is true that the character building aspect of learning received mixed reviews by learners and parents as well as community leaders.  On review, the relevant department has removed the character building aspect, which affected first year students only,” he said.

Mr Tsogwane said the government would continue to provide vocational and technical education training in public institutions, adding that the Minister of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development had acknowledged challenges in this sector of training and put some corrective measures in place.

“As for how soon the situation will normalise will depend on the availability of resources and the prescribed procurement processes.  Once and if additional resources are made available to assist with the regulatory compliance it will be necessary to implement the corrections,” he said.

He further revealed that President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi had set up a cabinet committee comprising five ministries which had a duty to address these challenges.

Mr Tsogwane was responding to question posed by Sefhare-Ramokgonami Member of Parliament, Dr Kesitegile Gobotswang during the Leader of the House Question Time.

Dr Gobotswang had said the country’s technical colleges and brigades were undergoing a ‘crisis of monumental proportions.’

He said there had been concerns by students about their welfare, as they complained about their P360 monthly allowance, with class boycotts taking place at the Palapye and Jwaneng technical colleges.

Dr Gobotswang said ‘13 468 learners were enrolled in the brigades and technical colleges compared to the recommended 7200 enough for the capacity of accredited programmes. While Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA) recommends a ratio of one instructor to 16 students, the 2019 enrolment ratio was as high as one instructor to 86 students’.

He further said that indications were that government had since taken decision to reduce the admissions to comply with BQA enrollment requirements.  

He called on government to assure parents and students that learners would be protected. Ends