15 Nov 2023

Education is critical for the development of any nation, therefore it should be aligned with national priorities.

Making his contribution to the State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) on Tuesday, the Member of Parliament for Ngami, Mr Caterpillar Hikuama, said proper alignment of education with national priorities would help address the challenge of youth unemployment.

“This is because government would have ensured that the youth are trained in skills required by the market, thereby ensuring that they are absorbed into the job market the instant they graduate,” he said.

He said at the moment there was a challenge of skills mismatch as graduates were often employed to do what they did not train for.

Mr Hikuama also said Botswana should also ensure that its syllabus moves from what he termed a job-seeking syllabus to a skills-based one.

“The current syllabus is what led to the failure of the Education and Training Sector Strategy Plan of 2015- 2020,” he said.

He also decried lack of facilities and teachers at schools, as well as inadequate early childhood education.

On other issues, Mr Hikuama called for construction of roads in his constituency, especially the Maun-Sehithwa-Mohembo road.

He also pleaded with government to consider drilling boreholes for farmers and improve access to land.

“If government does not take care of these two basic aspects, then efforts to increase the national herd count like the recent importation of bulls are likely to fail,” he advised.

Mr Hikuama also called on government to make a waiver and allow farmers to sell their cattle without the requirement for ear tags as he said government had been struggling to supply them ever since the inception of the requirement.

On health issues, he requested government to upgrade health posts to clinics as promised, saying that this would help ease health service delivery in rural constituencies like Ngami.

The MP complained about late payments to farmers who sold their cattle to the Botswana Meat Commission.

“Some farmers have long sold their cattle to the BMC as far back as May this year, but they are yet to be paid,” he said.  Ends