Time to instill responsibility in youth - Nkate

GABORONE - The youth should be made to understand that every right imposes a responsibility, says the Minister of Education and Skills Development.
Presenting his ministry's budget proposal on Monday, Mr Jacob Nkate said it is time to instill a sense of responsibility amongst the youth.
He urged parents and all responsible citizens to condemn the unruly behaviour that is creeping into society in the name of entitlements and rights.
"Remember, every right imposes a responsibility," Mr Nkate said.
He said it is regrettable that the University of Botswana (UB) council had to close the institution, following students riots, which resulted in destruction of school property.
He informed MPs that the recent boycott of classes was triggered by two reasons. He said the first was one group of students who had been staying on- campus in the first semester but decided to move out in the second semester and demand that the ministry should pay them off-campus allowance. He said they declined to pay the allowance on the basis that accommodation is available on campus.
"It should be understood that accommodation at the UB was put up at a public cost, and it cannot be the same public that pays for students to stay elsewhere while thousands of these units remain empty." He said his ministry has since agreed with the UB management that in future all accommodation would be taken up before students could be allowed to stay off-campus.
Mr Nkate said he refused to address the student community because he feared being insulted.
"They wanted me to go to the UB so that they can stand there in the crowd unrecognizable and insult me." He said four years ago he tried to address UB students, but came out with his "tail between my legs." Mr Nkate vowed that it is not going to happen again.
"Who am I not to be afraid of them? Their own MP has been moaning about how he cannot get the opportunity to talk to them. He is also afraid of them," he said.
He said the second group of students had failed their end of year examinations and wanted the government to continue sponsoring them.
He added that some students had in fact repeated the subjects twice while some are going into their sixth year for a four-year programme.
The minister said it is clearly stated in the memorandum of agreement that repeat sponsorship is not automatic.
He said it is for this reason that, despite the invitation by the ministry for individual students to present their case, they all failed to do so and instead opted to boycott classes, intimidate other students and destroy property.
"I still want to invite any student who feels he or she has a case to present themselves," said the minister.
He said contrary to statements that he declined speaking to students, he in fact waited for the Student Representative Council (SRC) to see him but that they never did until the day students resorted to violence.
On the issue of giving students notice, Mr Nkate said the affected students were written letters on October 20, 2008.
He said the SRC also held discussions with officials from his ministry on the issue and were also informed of the government's position nine days later.
"It is therefore not true that the students were taken by surprise.
They in fact knew that they were not going to be paid allowances in the second semester," he said.
On other issues, the minister said the pass rate at the various levels of national examinations is not satisfactory. "This is quite disturbing and I intend to engage with relevant stakeholders to work on solutions," he said.
He noted that a total of 41 471 candidates sat for the 2008 Primary School Leaving Examinations compared to 41 191 in 2007 which is an increase of 0.68 per cent.
He said there has been a decline in the percentage of candidates awarded grade A to C, saying it was 69.9 per cent in 2008 compared to 72.9 per cent in 2007.
The minister also noted that girls performed better than boys in all subjects.
He said in the Junior Certificate Examinations (JCE) the overall performance of the 2008 candidates improved by 0.1 per cent. He said it was 75.1 per cent in 2007.
The minister said girls perform better than boys because boys have the attitude that "you cannot touch me I am the big boss" while girls tend to be more attentive, interested and more enthusiastic about what is taking place in the classroom. "So we cannot be surprised that the girls are doing better than the boys," he said. BOPA