Africa-Press – Botswana. Government is alive to the challenges faced by tertiary institutions that include welfare of students and staff as well as the state of infrastructure, and is working on finding solution to address them.
Assistant Minister of Higher Education, Mr Justin Hunyepa yesterday toured Tshwaragano and Kgatleng brigades in Kumakwane and Mochudi respectively, to get first-hand information on issues affecting them.
The assistant minister’s tour was planned to include colleges of education, institutions of health sciences, technical colleges as well as brigades.
We want to confirm if the students have enough learning materials, to check if their accommodation is conducive, if they have functional libraries and workshops and issues of allowances among others, Mr Hunyepa said.
The assistant minister also stated that they had engaged staff members of these institutions through their trade unions.
He said trade unions raised an issue of dominance of tenders by foreigners yet local institutions were capable of producing the same skills, and made a suggestion to upgrade course levels of brigades.
Other concerns from the unions he said included complaints regarding delayed progression of staff members, accommodation, lack of further their studies for staff, as well as using old and obsolete equipment.
Mr Hunyepa said management raised challenges of lack of funding and resources, which were pivotal in running the institutions.
He said they would then engage respective ministries and the Office of the President and they would find ways of assisting these institutions especially the brigades because government believed so much on brigades since they produced the necessary skills needed by various industries.
Mr Hunyepa said the information compiled would help government solve the problems faced by the institutions and to ensure that the graduates from such institutions created employment opportunities for themselves and other Batswana.
“We want to see quality products, quality graduates from these institutions from divisions of construction, plumbing, electrical installations, painting and decorations among other traded,” said Mr Hunyepa and added that partnerships between the institutions and communities, civil society, development partners and the corporate world was important.
“We want to see these companies helping the government because the government alone cannot manage,” said Mr Hunyepa and further stated that partnerships could enhance the quality of education.
Mr Hunyepa said it was government’s desire to see the graduates dominating tender awards because it was government’s desire to see local resources benefiting Batswana.
He also said brigades’ intake was low and wanted to see it increased, attributing the decrease to poor infrastructure.
“We believe in vocational work because it is capable of creating jobs for graduates,” said Mr Hunyepa.
The Student Representative Councils were also part and parcel of the tours and their worries comprised students’ monthly allowanc, which they said was meagre and at times inconsistent.
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