02 Dec 2024

Private sector has been challenged to participate meaningfully in the endeavour to improve quality of education in Botswana.

Speaking during Palapye sub region excellence awards on Friday, managing director of Venture Partner Africa, Mr Anthony Siwawa said quality and equitable education at all levels remained a challenge as evidenced by declining academic performance nationally.

He said there was a lot of work to be done for the system to generate expected outputs. Mr Siwawa said the BGCSE results for Palapye sub region had consistently remained significantly below the set target.

He nevertheless applauded primary schools in Palapye sub region for consistently achieving results on average in excess of 70 percent since 2016 for the Primary School Leaving Examinations.

Mr Siwawa said the Junior Certificate examinations had shown marked improvement since 2020 but the results were below the set national threshold.

He said, graduates required a collaborative effort with respect to funding, knowledge sharing, strategic planning interaction, skills sharing and sponsorships.

Mr Siwawa said commitment to improving access to education meant all learners regardless of age, gender, disability, religion, tribe, level and geographical location should get equal chances to education, as education was a social equaliser as it transcended socio-economic boundaries by meeting the requirements of the Inclusive Education Policy (IEP).

He said for schools to collect children from the age of three till Form five was a major initiative which needed to be applauded and supported as part of the IEP.

He said while access to education was improving, schools at all levels continue to face challenges of overcrowding, vandalized dilapidated infrastructure, acute shortage of furniture and limited learning resources.

Mr Siwawa said this situation had undoubtedly compromised the quality and relevance of education standards in terms of teaching and learning.

He urged the education office and its schools to embrace Public Private Partnership (PPP) framework and the facilities management models to enable effective development, management and maintenance of school infrastructure in partnership with private enterprise.

“Such an approach will enable effective and acceptable quality of infrastructure providing a safe, comfortable and attractive place for teachers to work and students to learn’’, said Mr Siwawa.

Mr Siwawa challenged the business community to develop strategies and models which will enable their engagement with the education ecosystem. ‘’These models may include financial and intellectual property contributions,’’ he said.

Palapye sub region chief education officer, Ms Didimalang Mmemo said they were motivated because government recognised the importance of education and support the Ministry of Child Welfare and Basic Education at all cost. Ends