24 Mar 2026

Government places human capital development at the centre of the country’s economic transformation agenda, recognising higher education, technical training and skills development as critical enablers of productivity, innovation and sustainable job creation.

This was revealed by Minister of High Education, Mr Prince Maele while presenting the ministry’s budget request for the 2026/2027 financial year. Minister Maele said the budget estimates reflected the ministry’s desire, commitment and responsibility to transform the country from a resource-based to a knowledge-based economy through educational transformation, particularly the revitalisation of Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET).

“Botswana has made notable stripes in terms of its vision of having an educated and informed nation however, there has been stagnation in productivity of these skills hence the need for a transformative and supportive higher education and skills development system that is responsive and globally competitive,” Mr Maele said.

Minister Maele said it was important to enhance the national education blueprint, transform the teacher education as well as to upgrade and rationalise the Institute of Health Sciences (IHS) to up skill industry-led skilling and staff- welfare. Such initiatives, he said directly supported NDP12 objectives of addressing skills mismatches, enhancing employability and promoting economic diversification.

 “It is against this background that the 2026/27 budget made provision for the development of a tertiary education financing policy which will guide how tertiary education will be funded in a sustainable, equitable and efficient manner,” he said.

In line with NDP 12’s emphasis on fiscal consolidation, Mr Maele said the ministry was implementing measures to enhance cost containment, promote third-stream income generation and ensure value for money in the utilisation of public resources.

He said in order to achieve the ministry’s transformative agenda, it was paramount to reform the learning institutions and transform the quality of education throughout the brigades, technical colleges, institute of health sciences, colleges of education and universities. 

Additionally, Minister Maele said the Construction Industry Trust Fund (CITF) had been transformed into a Rapid Skills Development Centre (RSDC).  That, he said was done through legislative review in order to align RSDC programmes with the new government’s vision to prioritise of TVET.  He stated that the transformation would ensure that the RSDC now trained for all sectors of the economy, as opposed to only construction and allied trades as it was previously the case. 

“As part of the transformation, the RSDC footprint around country is being expanded to support and sustain rural economies with the intention of mitigating against rural-urban migration by supporting and strengthening sustainable jobs in the rural areas,” he said. 

To that effect, Mr Maele highlighted that the ministry was proposing over P7 billion for the 2026/2027 financial year recurrent budget and over P154 million for the development budget. The bulk of the development budget, he said would be channelled towards maintenance, expansion and equipping of tertiary institutions in order to create a conducive learning environment that can accommodate the growing number of learners. BOPA