25 Nov 2020

Government needs to swiftly commence the process of transforming the primary education sector to make it more responsive to current and emerging needs,  Ghanzi South MP, Mr Motsamai Motsamai has said.

Responding to the President’s State-of-the-Nation Address, Mr Motsamai said it was important for the government to urgently consider ways through which education, particularly at primary school level, could be improved to match modern-day challenges.

 He highlighted the need to re-visit the 1994 education review on national education policy to further improve the education sector.

He said primary education was an important phase of a child’s education, noting that more resources needed to be channelled towards upgrading primary schools for them to produce individuals who could be of great value to the corporate world.

The Ghanzi South legislator added that public primary schools should be in a position to compete with private schools in terms of producing higher pass rates.

He said the upgrading of public primary schools would also have a positive impact on the civil service to work in rural areas, saying it was evident that a lot of public servants shun working in rural areas because of what they term substandard education facilities for their children.

 Mr Motsamai noted the poor facilities and overcrowding at Xhanagase RADs hostels, saying even though people were grateful for government efforts to provide education facilities to rural dwellers, they were concerned that pupils continued to steal away from RADs hostels, citing lack of recreational facilities.

He complained of lack of basic social amenities such as clothing and toiletry supplies from the Social and Community Development officials to RADs pupils. Mr Motsamai further advocated for the improvement and promotion of technical and vocational education.

 He said TVET was what the country needed in order to achieve sustainable development since vocational institutions produced hands-on marketable graduates.

He said vocational training had, since inception, 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.

 Mr Motsamai also called for the improvement of health services in his constituency and said it was disheartening that a lot of health facilities in Ghanzi had shortage of medicines. 

On other issues, Mr Motsamai said the shortage of government fleet in rural areas hindered service delivery.

Mr Motsamai further emphasised the need to transform rural areas into investments centres to reduce rural-urban migration.  He said rural areas needed to be turned into robust investment areas to empower the locals and reduce dependency on government programmes. 

Also debating the address, Gaborone North MP, Mr Mpho Balopi, also Minister of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development, indicated that his ministry had developed Botswana Decent Work Country Programme (BDWCP) 2020-2024, with the assistance of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The BDWCP, he said, was the main vehicle for delivery of ILO support to member countries with the objective to promote decent work as a key component of national development strategies.

Mr Balopi said the advent of COVID-19 had posed a challenge in labour relations as industries had been hard hit by the pandemic and struggling to meet some of the remuneration obligations.

He further stated that work permits issuance would also be reviewed and only issued to individuals with tools to enhance the country’s economy and create sustainable jobs for the locals.

Mr Balopi stated that there was a proposed occupational health and safety law that would prioritise safety at the workplace and improve the conditions of service, adding that a review of Employment Act to be at par with the current challenges was also on cards.

He said he was grateful that the sewage odor that had, for years, been tormenting Gaborone North residents had been dealt with and advocated for re-use of grey water in horticulture. ends