28 Mar 2022

Some Members of Parliament have emphasised the need to patent research in order to help grow the country’s economy.

Debating the Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology’s proposed budget for the 2022/2023 financial year recently, some legislators commended the minister for introducing National Research Fund to finance researchers as well as guarding against loss of intellectual property through enforcement of intellectual property management processes.

However, some MPs called for the establishment of a Research Council to ensure that the research fund served the purpose.

MPs also called for increase in student allowances, particularly those in technical colleges so that it matched those in other institutions of higher learning.

They also called for technical colleges to be moved from the Ministry of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development to Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology.  

Responding to MPs’ comments, tertiary education minister, Dr Douglas Letsholathebe emphasised the need to invest in research and development in efforts to transform the country from a resource-based to knowledge-based economy.

Dr Letsholathebe also highlighted research as the foundation of a knowledge-based economy, hence the ministry decision to allocate about 75 per cent of its development budget to research and development programmes.

He said for research to thrive there should also be collaboration between research institutions and centres.

He added that researchers should support one another and desist from refusing to share equipment.

“Research should be relevant to this country and help transform the lives of Batswana by bringing developments that would address challenges faced by the nation. It should also extend to policies enacted by government,” he said.

Also, he said indigenous knowledge would also be included in transforming the economy to knowledge-based.

On other issues, he said government highly regarded human resource development, hence the free education from early childhood up to university level.

He said Department of Tertiary Education Financing (DTEF) would continue assisting students with scholarship depending on the availability of funds.

However, he encouraged parents who had the means to pay for their children’s tuition fees to help government in that regard.

He said there was also need for government to review payment of allowances, adding ‘parents should take the responsibility of taking care of their children to enable government to pay for students’ tuition fees’.

On the other hand, he said the ministry was still looking into providing students with laptops. He commended institutions that had already started giving undergraduates laptops at the commencement of their programme of study.

On technical colleges and Institution of Health Sciences, he said there was need for paradigm shift to improve resources and quality of education in those institutions.

“If we really want to transform our economy, this ministry needs enough budget to fund research because it is expensive,” he said.

Meanwhile, Parliament approved the ministry’s budget estimates for the 2022/2023 financial year. The ministry will, in the next financial year, use over P3bn and over P207m for its recurrent and development expenditure respectively. ends