04 Mar 2014

The Minister of Education and Skills Development, Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi says her ministry, although it has received a lion’s share of the 2014/15 national budget, is faced with financial constraints.

Presenting the 2014/15 budget estimates for her ministry in Parliament on March 1, the minister said if wishes were horses, she would ask for P5.5 million instead of P2.2 million for every school for provision of feeding, utility payments and maintenance.

The minister explained that out of the P9 259 494 520 recurrent budget proposals, all the 239 schools across the country would share P630 million which was not enough to cover all costs.

“This actually makes it nearly impossible to adequately address the needs of the education sector at all levels, despite this seemingly large budget provision for the ministry,” she said.

Dr Venson-Moitoi asked Parliament to approve a total budget of over P9 944 494 520 for the next financial year of which P9 259 494 520 would be for recurrent and P685 million is for development budget.

The minister explained that a proportion of her recurrent budget was spent on personal emoluments, with 52 per cent or P4 859 564 830 allocated for salaries and allowances.

Teaching cadre alone was allocated P3.8 billion and Dr Venson-Moitoi said this was due to rationalisation of the payment structure for the teachers which provided for progression of teachers in C Band and de-linking of deputy school head and head of department grades to demonstrate the difference in level of responsibility and accountability.

The minister said the second largest share of the ministry’s recurrent budget is spent on tertiary education and training of students.

This has been allocated P1 798 198 880 and allocations for this have been decreasing over the years as government has continued to enroll more Batswana in local than external institutions.

A further P1 307 011 950 is allocated to organisations such as Botswana Accountancy College (BAC), University of Botswana (UB), Botswana International University of Science and technology (BIUST), Tertiary Education Council (TEC) and Botswana College of Open and Distance Learning (BOCODOL).

The minister said out of the P680 million development budget, P121 800 000 has been allocated to the ministry headquarters for various projects such as purchasing of computers for 80 schools, development of Education and Training Sector Plan (ETSSP), establishment of Botswana Qualification Authority (BQA) and fleet expansion.

Minister Venson-Moitoi said the P15 million allocated to the Department of Technical and Vocational Education and Training would be used to continue the refurbishment of brigades.

The Department of Secondary Education has been allocated P548 200 000 for procurement of teachers houses, maintenance and expansion of junior schools.

Dr Venson-Moitoi said her ministry would start construction of two new junior schools in Francistown and Maun as well as upgrade two junior schools in Tsabong and Mahupu into Unified Schools.

She explained that her ministry needs 6 000 housing units for teachers and 800 additional classrooms for both junior and senior secondary schools.

The minister said her plan was to start with a provision of 3000 housing units and about half the number of classrooms required which translates to P2.7 billion for secondary schools alone adding this would be done over a period of five to six years.

“The plan would take the approach that all maintenance would be major such that all renovations would include remodeling of schools to include laboratories, libraries, kitchen dining halls, staff rooms where they are needed,” she said. ENDS