24 Mar 2026

Government has prioritised maintenance and refurbishment of existing education facilities across all levels of education in line with the twelfth National Development Plan (NDP 12) and Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP).

Presenting the Ministry of Higher Education’s 2026/2027 financial year budget proposals, Minister Prince Maele noted that maintenance of education facilities remained a priority for government, hence the over P154 million development budget proposal. 

Minister Maele said well-maintained infrastructure was fundamental to the delivery of quality education, learner safety, staff welfare as well as optimal utilisation of public investment in the education sector. He said focus of the maintenance programme would be on rehabilitation, upgrading and life-cycle preservation of existing infrastructure rather than extensive new construction. 

That approach, he said supported government’s fiscal consolidation agenda while ensuring that learning environments remained safe, functional and conducive to teaching, learning and skills development.  He noted that funds had been provided for the maintenance and upgrading of facilities at universities, technical colleges, brigades, colleges of education and institutes of health sciences.

“As a cost-containment and skills development measure, the ministry will utilise students and trainees from technical colleges and brigades to undertake selected maintenance works as part of their practical training,” he said.

He said institutions offering automotive trades would conduct minor servicing and selected repairs on government vehicles under supervision, adding that the ‘Training-with-Production’ approach enhanced hands-on learning, reduced maintenance costs and accelerated the acquisition of employable skills while ensuring value for money.

With regard to tertiary education financing, Mr Maele stated that the ministry continued to facilitate access to finances for students to study in Botswana and abroad. He said currently, 44,506 students were being sponsored and 11,761 had started to benefit during the financial year 2025/2026. He added that out of the 44,506 students, 43,732 were enrolled in local institutions while 774 were in external institutions.

Additionally, Minister Maele noted that the ministry had made considerable efforts to improve service delivery in line with government digitalisation transformation agenda through implementation of the on-line services platform to facilitate on-line application and automatic processing of tertiary education financing requests.  That, he said had reduced service turnaround time and improved access to tertiary financing services. He said the ministry, for the 2025/26 financial year, had budgeted to collect P20 million towards student loan recoveries.

“As at December 2025, collection stood at over P6.9 million or 34 per cent against an annual target of P20 million,” he said.

Minister Maele attributed the under-collection of student loans to high unemployment rate, challenges experienced in tracking and tracing of beneficiaries, particularly in the private sector which severely limited the ministry’s ability to recover from beneficiaries.

"This is a serious challenge contributing to budget shortfalls as the ministry continues to experience budget shortfall both in the student training budget and operational budget due to the limited ceiling,” he said.  

However, he said in the ministry intended to develop a department of tertiary education financing policy aimed at better facilitating sponsorships, improve sustainability and cost recovery. BOPA