Africa-Press – Botswana. For Botswana to be a knowledge-based economy, more resource should be allocated to the sector.
Therefore, when Minister of Finance, Ms Peggy Serame presents the Budget Speech today, keen interest would be on any pronouncement made in that regard.
Among those who will be paying attention is Botswana Sectors of Educators Trade Union (BOSETU), secretary general, Mr Tobokani Rari, who in an interview ahead of the speech, said steps should be taken to achieve a knowledge-based economy.
Mr Rari said as government was set to implement the outcome-based education, there was need for a significant expenditure to be channeled towards the initiative, which would require more resources such as more teaching spaces for practical lessons.
“In this context, our view is that there should be practical steps taken to realise multiple pathways in our education system,” said Mr Rari and added that there was no doubt that the change in curriculum and its assessment in line with the outcome-based education policy called for training and re-tooling of educators to be able to cope with teaching the curriculum and its assessment.
Consequently, Mr Rari said a significant portion of the budget should be reserved for teacher training, re-tooling, and up-skilling.
He said the education system should be able to profile learners and channel them into their areas of potential while they were still young.
“In line with this view, there will be need for centres of excellence for each of the pathways. For instance, pathways for sports, culture and vocational centres.
This is a much needed revolution in our education system,” said Mr Rari.
He noted that there was dire shortage of resources in schools such as books and furniture, which needed money to be addressed.
Mr Rari said most schools that started out small in terms of enrolment had now turned into big schools, while keeping the same physical structures of teaching spaces, resources and staff accommodation.
“This is the real problem that is creating all the crisis in our mainstream public education,” said Mr Rari.
He said there was a real need to remedy the glaring challenges facing the sector.
In the previous budget estimates, the Ministry of Education and Skills Development got the largest share, P15.04 billion or 24.9 per cent of the country’s P60.30 billion of the proposed recurrent budget.
Minister Serame then said the substantial allocation was consistent with national priorities and demonstrated government’s commitment to strengthening human capital and skills development required in a quest to transform Botswana into a knowledge-based economy
On the development budget aspect, the ministry benefited, among others, through the implementation of schools digitisation initiatives, which aim to drive the transformation of Botswana into a knowledge-based economy.
The ministry’s expansion and maintenance of education facilities to increase and improve instructional space was also budgeted for.
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