17 Nov 2020

The Assistant Minister of Tertiary Education, Research Science and Technology, Mr Machana Shamukuni, has told Parliament that over the last five years,  out of the 148 009 learners who completed Senior secondary, 88 112 were not admitted to tertiary education.

Mr Shamukuni who was responding to a question from Molepolole North Legislator Mr Oabile Regoeng said his ministry through HRDC conducted annual Tertiary Education Census to produce Tertiary Education indicators.

He added that the administrative data on the total number of pupils who sat for Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) was sourced from Botswana Examination Council and was used to calculate the transition from senior secondary education to tertiary education.

Mr Shamukuni also highlighted that analysis was ongoing on the total number of pupils who had transitioned to tertiary during the academic year 2019/20 and was expected during the last week of January 2021.

Commenting on the interventions that the ministry had devised to improve the admission rate, the assistant minister said a student financing policy was being developed which would come up with ways of increasing the number of students sponsored by the government. Mr Shamukuni also said the ministry was working on capacitating Technical Colleges to increase their enrolments.

“The ministry has developed and reviewed 26 qualifications to be more relevant to the needs of the industry.  

These have since been submitted to Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA), “he said.

He also noted that the programmes leading to the qualifications would be offered in 2022 and as such would be expected to increase the number of pupils enrolling in Technical Colleges and reduce the number of those who could not access tertiary education.

Mr Shamukuni also explained that the ministry was at the initial process of developing the e-learning policy which would enhance the opportunities for more learners leaving senior secondary education to access tertiary education through distance and open learning.

“The new student financing policy will allow government to sponsor students who opt to access tertiary education through the e-learning mode,” he stated.

Mr Regoeng had wanted an update on the number of pupils who were not admitted at tertiary institutions upon completion from senior secondary schools in the last five years including the interventions the ministry had devised to improve the admission rate. ENDS