Minister To Propose Name For Brigades

The brigades, vocational training institutions for out of school youth countrywide, will be renamed ‘vocational centres,’ the Minister of Higher Education, Mr Prince Maele has said. Debating the State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) on Thursday, Mr Maele who is Tswapong North legislator, said in order to address some of the stereotypes attached to brigades, they would be renamed. He promised Parliament that he would soon present to them the renaming proposal for the brigades, which were founded in 1965 by the late Mr Patrick van Rensburg, to offer practical skills such as carpentry, plumbing and agriculture, and were initially tied to offering trade skills to the producer and consumer cooperative societies.

Mr Maele said in addition to increasing the student allowance in brigades and vocational centres from P300 to P1,900, government was committed to reaching the P2,500 per month across the board student allowance for all institutions of higher learning. He said the clustering of courses would be done to ensure vocational training is linked to industry needs, citing the example that if the hospitality and tourism was dominant in a place like Maun, the vocational training there would be linked to such an occupation. Mr Maele told Parliament that given that government had been facing a shortage of funds, cost saving measures had been introduced, including the reduction of travelling delegations among others.

He called for the improvement of the storm water drainage systems in Tswapong North because almost all the 21 village in the constituency were built in elevated areas next to hills. Mr Maele said they were promised roads such as Lesenepole-Maunatlala and the one linking the villages of Seolwane, Mosweu, Mokokwana and Maunatlala, initially proposed under the Development Manager Model, but had since been dropped from development plans. He pleaded with the government to revive plans for the construction of these roads as well as the upgrade of the Majwaneng-Lerala and Manaledi-Ratholo roads.

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Mr Maele also called for a major reconstruction of Moeng College and the construction of hostels in some primary and junior secondary schools in Tswapong North, in order to alleviate the current situation where pupils walked long distance to school. In his submission, Opposition whip, and Maun West MP Mr Caterpillar Hikuama commended government for the introduction of the use of minority languages in national radio and television bulletins but called for a national policy that would guide the cultural development of these languages in Botswana. On transforming the education sector, Mr Hikuama called for curriculum review, teacher training, robust monitoring and evaluation, schools infrastructure development, as well as improved access and inclusion for marginalised groups such as girls.

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