29 Dec 2013

The Vice President, Dr Ponatshego Kedkilwe has commended the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church for being committed to youth development.

Speaking at the SDA Botswana Union Youth Convention at Mmadinare Senior Secondary School on  Christmas eve, Dr Kedikilwe said the SDA like other civil organisations deserved a pat on the back for investing in and developing the youth of Botswana.

“It is fitting that I commend the organisers of the convention for choosing to address character building which is rather a complex and difficult subject. SDA church leadership is taking initial steps in building and moulding characters of the youth with the hope of shaping their future but the ultimate decision lies with the individual young person,” he said.

He said bringing youth together in occasions like the convention was work of noble note, visionary work, courage, love and determination that SDA deserved to be commended for.

He encouraged the SDA and the nation as a whole to continue to create ample opportunities for the youth in order to prepare them to face current and future challenges and to be responsible citizens.

“I am pleased to be part of this convention because it focuses on similar initiatives like the education commission of 1992/93 that I had the honour to chair. The commission proposed for the philosophy of an education that develops moral and social values, cultural identity and self esteem, citizenship and democracy,” he said.

He said youth must be and should be properly guided to guide themselves as they constituted not only the larger segment of the population, but because they were also relatively more endowed educationally and technically than previous generations.

“Youth are also economically active and highly mobile therefore vulnerable and susceptible to many potential life trappings and pitfalls,” he added. He said on November 5 2012, President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama talked about youth empowerment in his State of the Nation Address.

 He quoted the President saying, “our nation faces no greater task than that of empowering our youth to achieve their aspirations for productive and meaningful life. Thirty nine per cent of Batswana’s population are aged between 15 and 35 years.

This age cohort is better educated than any generation before them and many of them also possess additional life skills and talents such as relatively high levels of ICT literacy, but as a group they are struggling. Our youth deserve special support, with their energy and innovation capacity, our youth are a solid asset, who need to be enabled if we are to be a more prosperous and productive nation,” he noted.

Dr Kedikilwe went on to state that government recognised the talent potential of the country’s youth who were the seed capital of the country’s human resource.

 He said in this regard, in the 2013 budget, government investment in education stood at P7.93 billion for the Recurrent Budget and P1.18 billion for the development budget.

He said to date the Back-to-School programme had absorbed 33 000 re-entrants into the education system from primary to tertiary levels. He said the construction of new facilities in 43 primary schools which included teachers quarters, classrooms toilet blocks cost the government P500 million.

“The ministry of education in collaboration with the Chamber of Mines is prioritising vocational training in the mining and energy sectors to address skills mismatch by training youth in areas such as earthmoving, fabrication and welding, fitting, instrumentation among others,” he said.

He also noted that the former Botswana Agricultural College had now been turned into Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

He said the leadership of this country had also devised several approaches and interventions to address under-employment and to create opportunities for youth and skills transfer such as the National Youth Internship programme, the proposed National Service Programme, Youth Empowerment scheme and Youth Development Fund.

He said the Youth Development Fund had also been increased from P60 million to P120 million.He said as from April 2013, 26 youth owned construction companies and 26 individuals were engaged in facility rehabilitation projects worth P22 million.

He said during the last financial year 106 young entrepreneurs benefitted from CEDA with funds amounting to P41.4 million, while this financial year 34 youth owned projects had so far been funded to the tuneP17.3 million. ENDS