Chandapiwa Baputaki
13 January 2009
The Botswana Training Authority, with the approval of the Minister of Home Affairs, has closed down 15 institutions that were not properly registered.
Marketing and Promotions Manager, Lazarus Lekgoanyana, says that the issue of offering courses that are not accredited is escalating like crime in the country.
"These institutions continue to take advantage of ignorant citizens and those who cannot access information in rural areas. We are trying our best to disseminate information and we are still to brief the councillors around the country on this issue so that they help us curb this crime," he said.
He explained that they are questioning themselves as to what they are not doing to send the message home. "This is still happening in towns where we think people are more informed. The citizens still fall into the trap of being offered courses that are not accredited," he said.
Last week BOTA closed down 15 institutions that failed to meet the requirements for registration. "We are cracking the whip because it is like people are playing games with us," Lekgoanyana said.
He pointed out that they have tried to be fair by giving more time to the institutions that applied for accreditation. "When they failed to give us the full necessary documents required from them, we gave them 14 days to respond to why they failed. We even gave them a grace period of two to three months before recommending to the minister to close them," he said.
Lekgoanyana pointed out that if the people want to get into the business of education they should be prepared to give quality education. He indicated that some of the schools offer good courses but do not provide BOTA with enough information to be accredited.
He also explained that there are those who even have good premises but bad classrooms. He said they even found one school with a classroom that was partitioned into two making it not conducive for teaching, as the noise in the other partitioned classroom would disturb the students at the other side.
"They are not serious about offering quality education. It is either they take things for granted or they are lazy," Lekgoanyana said, be adding that from now on they will only be taking applications that are fully completed with all the necessary documents.
"If the application is not in order we will return it because we do not want to give the institutions that impression that we are processing their application while in actual fact we are still waiting for them to furnish us with the remaining documents".
The institutions that were closed are Daisy R Staffing Solutions, Gaborone, Stump Vocational in Good Hope, Candice Botswana in Gaborone, UMAA in Gaborone, Informative School of Excellence in Selebi-Phikwe, Elite Protocol Consultants in Gaborone, Sistech Center for Professional Education in Gaborone, Danpat Training Institute in Maun, ACCTEC Commercial in Selebi-Phikwe, Lobatse Commercial College, UEL Vocational in Selebi-Phikwe, Kubung Development Trust in Maun, World Community Counselling Centre in Tlokweng, Gabane Private(vocational training section) in Gabane and Tabitha Training in Francistown.
Learners are reminded to verify the accreditation of the institutions and the courses they wish to study before enrolling.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Mmegi/The Reporter. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
