Science, engineering related programmes gain traction
Baboki Kayawe | Wednesday December 9, 2015 16:09
This is according to the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC), in the 2014/2015 annual report. The report says there has been a marked decline in numbers studying humanities, social science and education as a result.
“Between 2009/10 and 2014/15 enrollments show a trend where combined science fields that is pure science, agriculture, health, science and technology with business and law categories attracted close to 70 percent of students in the tertiary sector leaving only 30 percent to social sciences, humanities and education fields,” HRDC notes. As part of its mandate to manage supply of human resource into the labour market, HRDC states that 4,834 learners enrolled for engineering, manufacturing and construction in the academic period 2012/2013 while 6,218 enrolled for the fields in 2013/2014 and the number is currently at 7,297 for the cycle under review. Enrollment for science courses stands at 9,229 marking a decline from 2013/2014’s 10,037. In 2012/2013 the number was at 8,383.
Humanities and Arts programmes continue to attract close to 4,000 enrollments since the period 2012/2013. At that time, local tertiary institutions had a total 3,942 learners reading for these courses, whereas a slight increment was noted in the 2013/2014 academic period with 4,234 learners enrolled. At present, the figure stands at 3,987 students.
HRDC says although these programmes are still relevant and contribute to human and social development of the country, “the main priorities are guided by labour market forces, revolve around science and science related courses, engineering manufacturing and construction, business, financial and law areas.
“These statistics show there is a positive trend towards producing priority skills for the national needs and labour market priorities”.
Altogether 57,447 high learners were enrolled in 2012/2013, while 60,439 got admitted to tertiary institutions in 2013/2014 and an additional 144 students took the current enrollment figures to 60,583.
Meanwhile, the report further indicates more males enrolled for Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) qualifications compared to females in the period 2014/2015. Sixty-seven men enrolled for PhD programmes while just 27 women are studying towards such. However, more female learners are reading for their Masters Degrees, with the total number currently at 982 compared to their 790 male counterparts. A total 18,898 female learners are enrolled for Bachelors Degree studies in the current academic cycle.
Enrollment rates are also said to have increased significantly from 15 percent of the population aged 18-24 in 2009/2010 to 21 percent in 2014/2015. HRDC says this “shows that the aggressive move to train as many young Batswana as possible is slowly being realised”.