02 Apr 2023

Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development allocates P450 per learner for stationery to councils for all 765 government registered primary schools in Botswana.

Answering a parliamentary question recently, Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Sethabelo Modukanele said all councils were expected to adhere to the standard. He however acknowledged that due to budgetary constraints, his ministry at times had not been able to meet the P450 per child standard.

Mr Modukanele said the challenges to the supply of stationery in primary schools were not only caused by budgetary constraints, but other issues such as litigations, late delivery and sometimes non adherence to specifications by suppliers.

The 2022/23 budget for stationary, he said was fairly distributed across all councils including that of Palapye Administrative Authority.

He highlighted that the reason for differences in allocation of budget across councils was school enrolment.

Mr Modukanele explained that some districts had bigger pupils’ enrolments than others, hence the difference in budget for stationery.

The assistant minister stated that the P450 per child was meant to achieve fair resource allocation to all councils across the country.

He said he was not aware that councils south of Dibete were getting a higher budget than those in the north as the budget was based on school enrolment.

However, he said budgetary allocation across government were done on the basis of need and not along territorial inclinations.

Mr Moduakanele said to insinuate that resource allocation was done along regional lines was not only misleading, but also malicious and did not augur well for nation building.

“As part of parental involvement in the welfare and education of children and out of their own will, some parents at times buy stationery for their children,” he said.

Mr Modukanele cited a time when parents contributed by buying their children part of the stationery when Palapye Administrative Authority (PAA) awarded a tender to a company that failed to supply the items due to contract disputes.

Palapye MP, Mr Onneetse Ramogapi had asked the minister to explain how much budget for educational stationery was allocated per learner per council.

The MP had asked why most of the councils south of Dibete have higher budget allocation as compared to those in the north.

The legislator further wanted to understand why schools in Palapye Administrative Authority requested parents to buy exercise books, especially hard covers and why the education budget was not standardised save for transportation. ends