06 Mar 2014

Top Achievers Scholarship Programme is on course with a total of 248 students placed to study in some top institutions of learning around the world.

Director of Botswana Education Hub, Mr Labane Mokgosi said in an interview that the programme was doing well as the numbers of learners qualifying steadily increased from 19 in 2010 to 30 in 2011 and 42 in 2012 and 2013.

He said since inception of the programme in 2010, a total of 137 students had been sent abroad for studies while 113 enrolled for A-levels locally before they could proceed to institutions abroad.

Mr Mokgosi said the programme had been extended to include learners who attained 4A* or better but fall short of 6A*S to study A-levels in the local schools. He said the idea to finance the learners for A-levels emanated from the fact that one of their mandates was to build capacity for the local institutions.

“Most of these students when we send them outside, they are enrolled for A-levels before they could start the courses, so as such we thought they might as well do it here,” he said.

He said students went for studies in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and the Caribbean where they enrolled for highly technical subjects, science based subjects, financial engineering, medicine and geo-physics.

“We try to look for courses under niche areas to try and close the gaps here at home,” he said. Mr Labane said Batswana students had so far made the country proud as they won international awards such as the one awarded under the Duke of Edinburgh in the UK for portraying other attributes besides academia, such as in physical activities and adventure.

He said some have pursued their internships under institutions that promote research in science based projects at Cardiff Sixth Form College and programmes under National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He said they were expecting the first cohort of students to complete their studies and come back home this year. Ends