The debate on the deteriorating quality of education in Botswana took a new turn last week when academics condemned the proliferation of many private "universities", which currently stand at seven serving a population of approximately two million people, and called for their closure. Different speakers at a BOT50 Public Lecture Series under the topic “Capturing Botswana’s Major Milestones” at the University of Botswana (UB) Centre for Continuing Education last week said the new "universities" are duplicating programmes offered at already existing government tertiary institutions while the quality of some courses they offer is suspect. The public lecture was organised to capture the country’s major milestones since independence such as the introduction of the local currency, national railways and airline, the discovery of diamonds and its first university. A discussant on the subject, Professor Part Mgadla from the University of Botswana Confucius Institute said if he had the powers he would close those universities that provide already existing programmes. He said having seven universities, all in Gaborone is too much, and leads to duplication of programmes which in some institutions are accredited by universities outside the country. This creates a problem of monitoring the quality of the programmes, he said. Former…