BOTSWANA: Limits on enrolments cancelled

A decision by the Botswana government in April to restrict new enrolments in university-level institutions has been cancelled. The original move sparked a public outcry and it was quickly realised that limiting the intake of sponsored students to fewer than 5,000, and to students who had scored an aggregate of 40 points or better in the 2008 O-level examinations, would not work.

The next national election is in October and the opposition parties were making political hay out of the surge of public protest against the unpopular decision. But limiting the number of sponsored students has now been reversed in two stages: the first was to lower the cut-off for sponsorship to an aggregate of 36 points; the second to backtrack on the exclusion of private tertiary institutions.

Though these reversals have won some acceptance, more concessions are expected by the Ministry of Education and Skills Development. Many non-university tertiary education institutions, such as the six teachers' colleges, the allied health science colleges and other post O-level training programmes, will be unable to enrol many sponsored students if the cut-off is not lowered again. This also applies to the core of five private tertiary institutions which feared bankruptcy if no students were sponsored by the ministry.

Botswana, with fewer than two million people and a small sector of middle and high-level families who can afford to pay for the tertiary education of their children and relatives, must subsidise the private sector for it to flourish. Private tertiary institutions feared they would have marginal intakes in 2009 and would not be able to sustain their operations.

The global economic downturn has plunged Botswana into a financial crisis not experienced for decades. The government has arranged to borrow 13.5 billion Pula (US$1.93 billion) from the World Bank and the African Development Bank to cover the current budget deficit - the first such loan from the World Bank in 17 years. This was preferred to running down the nation's reserves.

Shortages in critical scarce skills are one factor impeding development. The ministry's deficit of two billion Pula (US$286 million) was mainly caused by what was perceived as over-expenditure on tertiary education and it had to twice request additional funds to meet its commitments - hence the move to reduce spending by cutting student sponsorships. Faced by an uproar, would the government have backed down if it were not an election year?

The number of Batswana sponsored by the ministry to study abroad will be sharply reduced and students now studying in South Africa, Malaysia and Australia (the main recipients) have already had their allowances reduced.