Education Policy in Botswana through Social Studies & Religious & Moral Education: A Brief

Educational policy in Botswana has been shaped by various policies over the years. However, two major reform initiatives stand out from the lot. The first was the 1977 Education for Kagisano (Education for Social Harmony) and the second being the Revised National Policy on Education of 1994. 

Both documents sought to take the education system of Botswana forward in years post-independence in terms of effective pedagogy and curriculum. 

Among the main issues of Government Order No 2 of 1994 were; access and equity in education, effective preparation of students for life, citizenship, world of work and effective management of the education system at the time.

 Having enjoyed autonomy as an independent state for years, Botswana developed the Vision 2016 in consultation with Batswana outlining targets to be achieved upon attaining fifty years of independence. The policy pillars sought to position Botswana as a place to be in the global world.

   

vision 2016

 Vision 2036 has since enjoined the 2016 one and it is still in operation. Its key strategic areas are still congruent to the former like emphasis on human resource development resonating with an educated and informed nation pillar.

The two major policy documents captured above have been used to drive the education system of Botswana to date. It is imperative to highlight the emergence of the yet to be fully rolled out Education & Training Sector Strategic Plan (ETSSP) 2015-2020 by the Ministry of Basic Education with emphasis on Outcome Based Education (OBE) and new learning programmes is slowly overshadowing the initial policies in the background. 

Religious & Moral Education and Social Studies are two subjects that can be used to gauge the successes and challenges of the major policies at primary school level.

It is imperative to highlight that, the inclusion of emerging issues like climate change is a welcome development in pursuit of these policies. However challenges like ineffective pedagogical practices, sex role stereotypes and little time allocated for the teaching of these vital subjects is rather short and impedes on the education policies of Botswana.

What would be your take educational policy in Botswana guys? Feel free to contribute a line.🙏🙏

Four rules of classroom management

Four rules of classroom management
I went to bed last night thinking of what to write for my next blog post and gladly I woke up with classroom management in mind. An interesting topic that teachers grapple with daily. I guess we can all relate, especially for beginning graduates.

This might sound nostalgic though! I came to learn about these four classical rules in 2004 during my initial teacher training days for a course in Teaching Upper Ages in Primary Schools. My lecturer back then (Mr. Moepi) made me fall in eternal love with these guiding principles which I recently shared with my colleagues during a staff meeting at Our Lady of Carmel.

1. Get them in
Be there before the day starts to welcome your students into the classroom. I can tell you, they will be looking to come earlier in the next day looking forward to your deliberations.

2. Get on with it
Hit the ground running and get on with the content for the day as per the time table. Remember students will respect us if they realise our readiness and preparedness with regards to what has to be done in a particular lesson.classroom management

3. Get on with them
An engaging interaction between the teacher and students is imperative in this regard. I mean, policy and our moral obligations to these kids does not not allow us to encourage passivity and dependency in class. That in itself will amount to killing their open mindedness (OM) at the expense of close mindedness (CM). Reflect on critical pedagogy and pedagogy of the oppressed by Paul Freire in this instance. However, these are topics that we will discuss here in great depth as time goes by.I promise.

4. Get them out
At the end of the day, be there to walk them out of the class. A kinda thank you for visiting thing. They will appreciate it a lot. I know this one is a headache for primary school teachers due to a variety of reasons and or excuses. In any case, we should try!
Feel free to share your ideas and comments on classroom management below. Thanks a lot. Next time.
Adopted from: Smith, C. J. & Laslett, R. (1993). Effective classroom management: A teacher's guide. 2nd Ed. London: Routledge.

Indoctrination and social studies teaching: Pedagogical practices of upper primary teachers in selected Botswana schools

ABSTARCT

This study examined the contested issue of indoctrination of learners and teachers’ pedagogical practices within the context of Botswana primary schools in social studies. Debates in social studies paradoxically accuse Social Studies for failing to achieve its cardinal goal of equipping learners with effective citizenship education skills. It investigated indoctrination as a way of contributing towards pedagogical solutions to the subjects’ challenges. This area has not been greatly explored especially in the context of the teaching of Social Studies in Botswana. Research questions sought to find out: stakeholders’ perceptions about indoctrination, experiences regarding the prevalence of indoctrination, pedagogical practices that were more likely to promote indoctrination and the impact on learners’ achievement.

This was a qualitative study and used an in-depth case study aided by critical theory and Paul Freires’ pedagogy of the oppressed to investigate the study problem. Semi-structured interviews, naturalistic non-participant observations and documents analysis were used to solicit data. Participants were purposively selected and data were presented and analyzed descriptively. The key findings indicated that: limited understanding of indoctrination, indoctrination by teachers and members of school management teams is alive in primary school classrooms; teacher-centered pedagogical practices had the potential to promote indoctrination and learners’ who were supposedly indoctrinated struggled to display effective citizenship education skills. These findings implied that Social Studies was failing to achieve what it purported to do as the disadvantages of indoctrination outweighed its merits in education. The study concluded that embracing critical pedagogy, pedagogy of the oppressed and learner-centeredness had the potential to reduce the prevalence of indoctrination.

Indoctrination & Social Studies teaching

Presentation coming shortly,watch the space!

INDOCTRINATION AND SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHING:PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES OF UPPER PRIMARY TEACHERS IN SELECTED BOTSWANA SCHOOLS
Venue: Kgatleng Education Region Offices
TBD/August 2018