Africa-Press – Botswana. The Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA) has assured stakeholders that it has no intention to cast aspersions on the quality of the properly accredited programmes offered by both public and private Education and Training Providers (ETP).
Addressing a press conference at BQA offices in Gaborone on Monday, manager for communications and public relations, Ms Letlhogonolo Paulo, said BQA puts the interest of the learners first.
“Whenever the authority establishes an irregularity regarding accreditation of any particular learning programme or that of the ETP itself, the authority is duty-bound to act in the best interest of the affected learners,” she said.
Ms Paulo said it was important to note that putting the interest of the learner first was aligned to the national goals as espoused in the Reset Agenda and the National Transformation Strategy goals.
She added that quality education would play an instrumental role in the realisation of the noble goals.
Ms Paulo said it was the responsibility of the BQA to ensure that learners receive quality education to facilitate the national transformation.
The BQA provided clarity on the public notice issued on July 12, of an intention to revoke accreditation of engineering learning programmes for Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST), New Era College of Arts and Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN).
Ms Paulo said the authority would like to clarify that it had not revoked any of the programmes listed on the notice at the said tertiary institutions, rather it had issued an intention to revoke their accreditation.
“In terms of regulation 16 of the BQA (Accreditation and Learning Programmes) regulations, an intention to revoke accreditation was a first step in the revocation process,” she said.
Ms Paulo said the procedure was that once BQA had issued an intention to revoke accreditation and ETP was notified in writing that its learning programme no longer met the accreditation requirements and as such the ETP was then given an opportunity to comply with the accreditation requirements within the specified time.
In the case of BIUST, BUAN and New Era, Ms Paulo said the authority had identified non-compliance in the affected learning programmes and therefore the ETPs were granted an opportunity to meet the criteria set for accreditation.
She said the ETPs were notified of the intention to revoke accreditation of the affected learning programmes and were given six months to address the identified gaps.
The notice was meant to alert prospective learners of the situation concerning the affected programmes in line with BQA regulations, she said.
Meanwhile, BQA Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Dr Gillian Mmolotsa, said the BQA was a regulatory body for education, training and skills development.
The authority performs its role by registering and accrediting ETPs both public and private, registration of qualifications and accreditation of learning programmes among others in compliance with the quality assurance set by the authority, said Dr Mmolotsa.
She said BQA was aspiring to be a catalyst for the development of world class education and training environment guided by the values of customer focus, innovation, accountability, inclusivity, collaboration and teamwork.
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