27 Oct 2024

Despite being at a tangent on solutions that affect the education system, political party presidential aspirants are at least on agreement that the sector faces a few challenges and need shaking, albeit offering differing solutions.

During the presidential debates held Thursday in Gaborone, Botswana Patriotic Front’s Mr Mephato Reatile indicated that priority under his government would be what he termed the decolonisation of the education system.

“One way of achieving such would be using indigenous languages in the education system. Other countries in our region recognise their indigenous languages in their education system, but here it is still a taboo,” argued Mr Reatile.

He said that government had also failed to fully embrace Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) at basic level as it was only offered in a few primary schools, an arrangement that created disparities among learners.

Mr Reatile said the current education system supported job seekers curriculum, saying his party on the other hand believed in job creation that was commercially driven.

“Our education system should produce graduates that are able to self-employ, in that way, they would also employ others,” he said and added that under the BPF government, education would be supported from pre-school level, fully paid for by government.

“This arrangement will not burden government with any more workload as day care centres will still be run privately, with government only financing the tuition,”Mr Reatile said and indicated that such an arrangement would also be a way of empowering the schools while at the same time ensuring access to quality education for all.

He said that to ensure quality syllabus, the schools would be accredited by the ministry.

Botswana Congress Party (BCP) presidential aspirant, Mr Dumelang Saleshando said the current education system had been overtaken by times and needed an overhaul.

He said  it was surprising that private education always performed better compared to public education.

“At the moment, government schools always perform below 50 per cent in examinations unlike previous years, while private schools always produce stellar performances.

This spells doom for the economy that needs more educated people,” he said.

For his part, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi, who is seeking re-election through the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), said if given another term at the helm, the BDP-led government would speed up the race on ICT right from basic education level as it was the foundation.

President Masisi also said the education sector challenges came from afar as government had been spending a lot on it with less returns, which he said was a result of internal inefficiency.

“This is something that we are committed to address. My government is also equally committed to resuscitating school sport next year,” he said.

Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) leader, Advocate Duma Boko said the current education system was too academic to fulfill the educational needs of the country.

“We need vocational education, which is the heart of education. If only we had embraced Mr Patrick Van Rensburg’s concept of education with production way back, we would be far by now,” he said.

He said that under the UDC, there was still a chance to retrace steps to adopt vocational educational which he said was more practical-based. Adv. Boko said about 90 per cent of artisans in Botswana were from Zimbabwe because the country had long embraced vocational education. Ends