Botswana Education

Botswana boasts of a high literacy rate, and has skilled manpower in a wide ranging set of disciplines.

The Botswana literacy level is at 83% way above the 50% mark set by the United Nation and long before the end of the 2003-2012 UN Literacy Decade.

Batswana have skills and qualifications for most disciplines as they have been trained in all parts of the world.

A greater part of the Botswana government's annual budget goes to the education sector to train locals.

For a long while, education was free as Botswana subscribed to the philosophy of universal access to primary and secondary school education.

However, due to the global economic down-turn Botswana re-introduced school fees albeit at nominal rates.

There are private primary and secondary schools in Botswana. However, the public schools are equally good.

Botswana has some of the best tertiary institutions to enroll in.

• University of Botswana - As the first institution of higher learning in Botswana established in 1982, the University of Botswana is one of the leading universities in Africa in terms of quality. The UB has four campuses in Botswana with two in Gaborone, one in Maun and the other in Francistown. It has six faculties of Business, Education, Engineering, Humanities, Science and Social Sciences.
• Botswana College of Agriculture - more skilled labour in Botswana is spurned by the Botswana College of Agriculture established in 1991 to promote higher learning in agricultural studies.
• Botswana Accountancy College - local professionals are groomed in the Botswana Accountancy College in the areas of accountancy, computing, business management and insurance. The college was established in 1996 as a joint venture between Debswana, Ministry of Finance and the Botswana Institute of Accountants.
• Botswana International University of Science and Technology - currently under construction in Palapye, BIUST will focus on training programmes in science, engineering and technology with an emphasis on imparting entrepreneurial skills. The first students to be enrolled will start on March 2011.

World universities championships 2011 in Botswana

The world's best debating teams are coming to Botswana for the World Universities Debating Championships 2011.

The 2 weeks long event will be hosted by the University of Botswana from the 27th December 2010 to 04th January 2011.

61 countries from all continents represented by 352 teams of 1200 participants will take part in the events.

Botswana will be represented by 3 tertiary institutes of University of Botswana, Botho College (NIIT) and Limkokwing University of Botswana.

There are few notable universities that stand out as probable winners, one of which is the University of Sydney which has won more the championships 3 times, a feat that is un-rivaled.

Shown below is a list of previous winners for the championships.

• 1986: winner - UC CORK (host: FORDHAM (US))
• 1994: winner - GLASCOW (SCOTLAND) (host: MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA))
• 1995: winner - NEW SOUTH WALES (AUSTRALIA) (host: PRINCETON (US))
• 2000: Winner - MONASH (AUSTRALIA) (host: SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA))
• 2001: Winner - SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA) (host: GLASCOW (SCOTLAND))
• 2002: Winner - NYU (US) (host: TORONTO (CANADA))
• 2003: Winner - CAMBRIDGE (ENGLAND) (host: STELLENBOSCH (SOUTH AFRICA))
• 2004: Winner - MIDDLE TEMPLE (host: NANYANG (SINGAPORE))
• 2005: Winner - OTTAWA (CANADA) (host: MALAYSIA)
• 2006: Winner - HART HOUSE (host: UC DUBLIN (IRELAND))
• 2007: Winner - SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA) (host: BRITISH COLUMBIA (CANADA))
• 2008: Winner - OXFORD (ENGLAND) (host: ASSUMPTION (THAILAND))
• 2010: Winner - SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA) (host: KOO INSTABUL (TURKEY))

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