27 Feb 2014

The Ministry of Education and Skills Development has resolved that it would be difficult to have one model to resolve the matter of students book allowances for all schools due to difference in the way institutions operated.

This was said by the Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Patrick Masimolole when responding to a question in Parliament from Gaborone Central MP, Mr Dumelang Saleshando on February 24.

This resolution, Mr Masimolole said, came up after careful consideration of input made by student representative councils (SRCs) from tertiary Institutions towards resolution of the matters of students book allowances in general and University of Botswana (UB) book store, in particular.

“The ministry engages some service providers locally to provide a student card, which would be open for use at certain points of sale in different book shops where students could buy books,” he said.

Mr Masimolole also noted that “due to the current project to outcome the Tertiary Education Support fund, implementation of the Student Card to purchase books will be implemented after outsourcing the services in the 2014/15 financial year.”

Before the implementation of the Student Card system, he said, his Ministry had resolved to let the status quo remain and the information was communicated to SRCs in February 2014.

MP Saleshando had asked the minister to state progress in resolving the issues of books allowances and the book store at UB.  ENDS