Overview; in 1994 the National Assembly of the Republic of Botswana approved and adopted Government Paper No. 2 of 1994 popularly seen in the guise of the Revised National Policy on Education into the 21st century. This was essentially a penultimate review of the 1976 National Commission on Education adopted in Government Paper No. 1 of 1977 also termed Education for Social Harmony (Kagisano).
It is worth mentioning from the onset and in laudable terms that this
Government Paper outlines Government’s reactions to the recommendations of the
Report of the National Commission on Education 1993 and lays down policy
guidelines and strategy for future educational development. The National Commission
on Education as appointed by His Excellency the President in April 1992 was
principally tasked with reviewing Botswana’s education system and its relevance,
re-examining its structure, advance recommendations aligned to the needs of
Botswana, linking secondary and vocational education and or tertiary education,
diversify secondary school curricular and lastly to suggest the best and cost
effective methods of implementation to the incumbent government.
In their efforts to ensure broad based consultation, the Commission
addressed the above issues through a variety of procedures; national
consultations, institutional visits, written and oral submissions, research and
policy studies and external study tours.
This is an indication of
the extensive consultation that the Commission conducted with a broad spectrum
of the society in accordance with the major national principle of democracy.
Information gathered through these means was discussed at sub-committee level,
sometimes with specialists in specific areas, or at plenary meetings. The
extent of analysis of the issues led to comprehensive findings, conclusions and
recommendations intended to guide future educational development into the next
century and beyond. After thirteen months of intensive work, the commission
submitted its report wherein 424 reformatory and revolutionary recommendations
are made in cognizance of the population changes, the economy and employment
opportunities
Key issues; On the basis of the Commission’s report,
Government has identified seven key issues that are vital to the future
development of education in the country being; Access and Equity, Effective
Preparation of Students For Life, Citizenship and World of Work, Development of
Training Responsive and Relevant To Needs of Economic Development, Improvement
and Maintenance of Quality of the Education System, Enhancement of the
performance and Status of the Teaching Profession, Effective Management of the
Education System and Cost-Effective/Cost Sharing in the Financing of Education.
The philosophy and goals; of education policy in
Botswana are to prepare Batswana for the transition from a traditional
agro-based economy to the industrial economy that the country aspires to. The
education and training strategy as envisioned in the Commission’s report will
aim at ensuring that the people of Botswana have invested in them an education
necessary for national development. Besides the demands of the economy, government
considers access to basic education a fundamental human right. The education
system must develop moral and social values, cultural identity and self-esteem,
good citizenship and desirable work ethics.
The RNPE is a document dealing with
many sectors found within the education system including but not limited to
pre-primary education, special education, vocational and technical education as
well as out of school education. Thus this paper would now like to shift its
focus to the educational recommendations part and specifically primary
education. The question that may be put forth then is, why the excitement
and focus on the primary sector by this article. Other than precision, focus
and avoidance of generalizability of issues, the writer is a qualified primary
school educator with more than ten years of professional experience the bulk of
which were spent in the remotest areas of Ngamiland district, Tubu. It is my
strong opinion that this sector which should form the base of education has
been somehow neglected suffice to mention the unimplemented recommendations.
Recommendations on
primary education
REC.14 this recommendation clearly and interestingly
explicate that a special provision be made with respect to primary school
facilities and standards. Construction companies have been engaged to deal with
the backlog of physical facilities which is highly appreciated and applauded.
There have been a reduced number of classes that are taught under trees a
situation which negates quality teaching and learning especially during the
chilly winter season. However, there is a great concern in terms of physical
facilities that are pivotal to learning and teaching. Key among the physical facilities
that schools need but are unavailable includes; library, resource center, fully
equipped science laboratories/equipment, sports field for various sporting
activities and adequate toilet facilities (including provision for the
disabled). The local district councils are also struggling with the provision
of equipment and or supplies to schools.
REC.15 focuses on measures to employ in order to increase
access and achieve equity in primary education. This is one aspect of policy
development that needs caution by policy developers wherein incorporation of
foreign and international trends into local policy should not be seen as
incompatible to indigenous policy development. A case in point is the
incorporation of the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) and Education for All (EFA).
Council authorities have made great strides in helping the Orphans and
Vulnerable Children (OVCs) with financial contribution towards school trips and
activities. Unfortunately the ongoing rhetoric of financial recession has
somehow seen the discontinuation of this financial support although not in its
entirety like with the provision of school uniform.
With regards to schools for the disabled, there are few schools
earmarked for the inclusion of people with disabilities. In most cases such
children are absorbed into the mainstream schools despite their varied
disabilities. This should not be a major problem considering the fact that the
global world seem to be moving towards a trend where schools accommodate every
learner regardless of ability in an effort to reduce issues of discrimination
and inequality. Regrettably the state is not conducive and accommodating to
young children who are otherwise living far from their biological parents and
guardians.
It is recommended by the report that teachers be sensitized on
cultural differences such that they are able to effectively handle their
culturally plural classrooms. Local research has revealed that primary school
teacher programmes are deficient of important dimensions like multicultural
education and citizenship education which consequently means that teachers are
bound to have problems in dealing with culturally diverse classrooms. For
example, the Ngamiland area is vastly occupied by the minority groups likes
Bambukushu, Bayei, Baherero and Basarwa. This recommendation concludes by
stating that the enactment of compulsory education legislation should be
deferred until present policies to achieve universal primary education have
failed to yield the desired results. The interesting part is; can we safely say
that after twenty-one years, Botswana has achieved universal primary education.
If the answer is the exact opposite,
then a compulsory education legislation should be put in place and strictly monitored
because if the status quo does not change we would assume the incumbent
government is not serious about education and the future of our children
especially the minority who will forever remain in the periphery and silenced.
REC.16 the
commission endorses that the minimum entry age be retained at 6 years for
public schools and five years for private schools. For the sake of debate, one
would be anxious to know the reasons advanced for this age difference with
regards to age of entry. The unfortunate picture that is painted by this
recommendation is one which divides the society into two cohorts; one which is
poor wherein the parents cannot afford luxury private school fees and those who
can pay thousands in tuition fees to let their young one kick start their
educational journey before others. Thus the poor will always be behind their
counterparts reinforcing the notion of the poor being poorer and the rich being
richer.
The drift of argument by this paper may seem petty but let me
hasten to clarify that societal inequality starts with the very things we
assume irrelevant and insignificant. It is the position of this article that
all children should be afforded the chance to start formal education at the
same age regardless of their families’ socio-economic status. Besides, there
are many 5 year olds who are bright and ripe to start schooling yet the very
policy that guides our education finds this fact immaterial. On the positive
though, embedded in the same recommendation is the flexibility of the system to
allow older children the opportunity to have access to primary education
especially those who may otherwise be at the care of their illiterate parents
or helping with traditional home chores like farming, reed cutting, hunting and
gathering.
REC.17 It axis
around the primary school curriculum, assessment and examinations. It is
commendable that the national curriculum was revised and new subjects, themes
and some emerging issues were incorporated therein. For example, the lower
primary level witnessed the introduction of Cultural Studies whilst the upper
primary ushered in Religious and Moral Education respectively. It is through
subjects like these where global and controversial emerging issues are infused
into the topics across the curriculum and the products of our education system
can be at par with the interconnected global world.
Despite the ululations conferred upon the policy with regards to
primary education above, there are, however, some discrepancies that militate
against the achievement of the RNPE aspirations. A case in point is the amount
of time allocated subjects that can lead to the attainment of the policy as
well as the penultimate Vision 2016 which is greatly tied to education. It is
also recommended that periodic surveys be undertaken to evaluate the extent to
which the curriculum is meeting objectives. Unfortunately the time that we take
to review our curriculum has a negative effect in trying to catch up with the
global trends. For instance, we may take ten years to review the syllabus, but
in between the years, there is so much that is happening which we unconsciously
miss on and by the time we incorporate such issues into the curriculum it may
be too late or rather bringing something that is no longer controversial and
interesting to the learners.
The introduction of Creative and Performing Arts as a subject
housing Art and Craft, Home Economics, Music and Physical Education has brought
more harm than good to the system for both teachers and learners. To start
with, it is a subject that appears to be lacking a sense of purpose and
direction, moreover, the situation is not helped by the apparent lack of
support materials to effectively plan for and teach the subject. Paradoxically,
it is not an examinable subject upon PSLE completion meaning that much of its
allocated time is stolen to push up objectives of high stakes subjects like
Science and Mathematics by teachers who otherwise see it as a waste of time
possibly because of lack of knowledge and interest in its wide scope.
Besides the compositions, letters and Agriculture, assessment of
subjects at primary school defeats the purpose of producing competent graduates
of the system. This article posits that our assessment vigorously needs to be
revamped from multiple choice based testing to include and encourage analysis,
synthesis and evaluation by learners when attempting questions. The standard
four attainment tests have been retained but they seem to have lost the spark
and excitement of the past. In years past, standard four was a bridge that
which provided the platform of graduating to upper primary otherwise one was
bound to repeat which turned the tide towards making individuals hard workers.
Low and behold, learners
gain automatic promotion to upper primary having failed attainment tests which
is also the case at standard seven whereby all learners graduate to form one
regardless of triumph or failure in exception of those who dismally fail and
are brought back to primary where they will eternally remain in the failure
zone. God knows what happens to their confidence, self-esteem and future.
Remedial teaching which could be helping revitalize learner
achievement is literally dead in primary schools. The few teachers who attempt
to remediate are only doing it for purposes of record keeping to satisfy their
supervisors and to score better marks in their PDPs during PMS review. Absurdly
some of the Heads of Department Learning Difficulties (HODLD) who oversee
remedial teaching in schools are not specialists in the area. Traditionally, primary
school teachers were promoted without taking due consideration of their specialty
with regards to the post of responsibility mainly because we are seen as
subject generalists rather than specialists. It was only after the phasing out
of Primary Teaching Certificate (PTC) that the issue of specialty came to be
considered when promoting teachers.
REC. 18 this is
one recommendation that explicitly shows that education is inherently political
and the tribal minorities as well as researchers are vehemently against it. To
break it down, English is seen as the alpha and omega of teaching of learning
and the only time wherein Setswana is spoken is during the Setswana lesson
which is compulsory to all Batswana citizens. This paradoxically means our Setswana
which we pride ourselves in is pushed to periphery, suppressed and let to
trickle through the hour glass into extinction.
Some concomitant factors are brought up to the fore by the ethnic
minorities who regard Setswana as their second language and as such advocating
for the teaching of their children in their mother tongue especially during the
formative years of schooling. One may posit contrariwise that the teaching of
other languages other than Setswana will be a nemesis to the notion of being
“Batswana” in “Botswana” ultimately dividing the country along tribal lines. On
the one hand, it may also be asserted that, taking everything for granted that
every indigenous person is a “Motswana” was relevant in years post-independence
and it has come to be a nonstarter because in reality, we have people who are
non-Setswana speakers even though they are rightly the citizens of this
country.
REC. 19 In relation to
educational support in primary schools, the commission had recommended that
broadcasting programmes should be updated and expanded to enhance teaching and
learning more especially through the use of audio cassettes during instruction.
However, the provision of radios and cassettes to schools remains an eternal
wish. Where they are provided, provision in done in low numbers and their
sharing leads to time delays and programme clashes across streams and classes.
The decline in the use of audio cassettes and radios also meets with the
upsurge of interactive learning innovations such as power point presentations
and e-learning thus putting a final blow radio lessons.
As
regards guidance and counseling programmes, plaudits are in order because every
primary school regardless of learner roll has a designated guidance and
counseling teacher responsible for the implementation of guidance issues. To
the credit of the ministry, schools with high rolls or Group A schools have the
privilege of two guidance teachers per school; one for upper ages and the other
one for lower primary classes. Guidance and counseling is also a subject that
is covered by pre-service teacher training programmes. In addition, the years
2012 and 2013 saw the admission of serving teachers at the University of
Botswana in large numbers to pursue a degree in guidance and counseling and
hopefully they will further strengthen guidance and counseling programmes at
their respective schools.
Educational
psychologist’s positions have since been created and exist at the regional
offices. Such officers are however faced with a plethora of cases which
paradoxically takes time to solve because regions are so vast and embody many
schools at primary, secondary and tertiary level. It would be better if junior psychologist’s
positions were created to ease the pressure on the current officer considering
that the position is at the level of Principal Education Officer 1 (PEO 1)
level.
REC.
20 With respect to textbook development, the Commission recommends that a
Textbook Evaluation Committee should be established to evaluate materials for
publishing and approve textbooks to be used in primary schools at regional
level. The quality of the work done by these committees is questionable because
a lot of textbooks in schools are full of errors that further engrave
misconceptions into the minds of learners. One particular case that comes to
the fore is the recalling of a social studies textbook from the shelves which
was considered to contain wrong information as regards the cultural practices
of a minority ethnic group.
Textbook
development for the ministry is open to all publishing houses locally and the
policy maintains that those who take part in developing publications for the
ministry are entitled to a share of the royalties.
REC. 21 With respect to the
procurement and distribution of instructional materials, the Commission
recommended a decentralized system at district level. Rightfully so, the
government has since decentralized procurement and distribution of
instructional materials. This positive step has accelerated the time taken for
materials to arrive at schools thus boosting classroom instruction in pursuit
of better academic results. The procurement and distribution process has since
been computerized as other government structures have done. Bounded requisition
forms are annually sent to schools for completion by schools with a detailed
list of prescribed textbooks; a direction that the global world is pursuing.
A great concern lies in the joint management
of basic education by the local and central governments. As it stands,
provision of stationery is the responsibility of the local government whereas
books are the task of the central government. The council authorities appear to
be struggling in exercising its part. One school head interviewed in
preparation of this article even suggested that the local councils be stripped
off the responsibility of providing stationery to schools.
REC. 22 The Commission recommends
that in the long-term that the maximum class size should be thirty, but in the
short term the maximum should be reduced from 45 to 40. The status quo shows
the teacher-pupil ratio at 1:40. Alas, this is still an imbalanced ratio
considering the curriculum workload that class teachers grapple with on daily
basis. Given the current rhetoric of financial instability ensuing from the
economic recession, the targeted class size of 30 remains farfetched and
improbable because the incumbent government seems to be in a bad mood as
regards the employment of teachers yet it perennially hires individuals on
temporary basis which shows that indeed vacancies do exist at the basic
education cohort.
Disagreements
exist between school heads and directors in some cases whereby the latter does
not agree on employing hiring more teachers when a class has a roll a little
over 40. As per the policy if a class has 43 learners for example, an
additional teacher has to be hired and the class be split into two, however,
the powers that be oppose the recommendations and requests made by school heads.
Contrariwise, they are quick to redirect or cancel contracts of temporary
teachers if the roll falls short of this ratio in order to cut the regional
wage expenditure.
REC. 23 With respect to progression
in primary school, the Commission recommends that a policy of automatic
promotion should be replaced with a policy of assessed progression. As it
stands, schools are implementing the policy as per the stipulated guidelines.
For example, teachers make consultations with parents and or guardians before pupils
can be made to repeat a standard and the number of those repeating in each
class (12.55%) is adhered to. It is also imperative to highlight that extreme
cases of repetition that requires the input of specialists like psychologists
are a rarity in basic education.
Continuous
assessment that is criterion referenced has since been adopted and implemented
across the country repealing the norm referenced assessment of primary
learners.
Part
of this recommendation suggests that individual schools should be provided with
trained remedial teachers at a level commensurate with senior teacher post
whose responsibility will be remedial teaching. Unfortunately this post has not
seen the light of the day and is still in the pipeline as political cynics
sarcastically refer to impending government initiatives.
Pre-service
training of teachers has been labeled as insufficient by various local and
international studies. The implication of their findings sends pointers to the
effect that pedagogical practices that embody remediation are not given greater
attention during teacher preparation. The same can be said of in-service
training on remedial work to practicing teachers. Workshops on remedial work
are seldom held for teachers at regional level let alone school level. The
issue of remediation is thus paradoxically left at the mercy of the Head of
Department Learning Difficulties (HoDLD) who in most cases are not
professionally trained on remedial issues. In fact in-service training at
schools is at an all time low.
REC. 24 On school management and
teacher development, the Commission recommends the development of guidelines
for head teachers, clearly defining their roles both as instructional leaders
and administrators of the school. At present, head teachers roles are clearly
defined in documents such as the famous yellow management manual for primary
schools. In addition to role clarification and specification, senior teachers
with responsibilities are appointed to monitor instruction of specific
subject’s e.g. senior teacher languages responsible for English and Setswana as
curriculum subjects. Notwithstanding these developments, there is more room for
improvement as these middle managers do not have sufficient powers in serious
instructional cases especially that at the present moment, they find themselves
in the same salary scale as senior teachers without responsibilities.
It
was also recommended that pupils should be taught by subject specialists from
standard four onwards until graduation from primary education. Subject
specialization was once piloted in various schools across the country only to
come to an end without fruition. The specialization exercise has since been
frozen and what remains in the guise of specialization in safely termed
‘subject sharing’ where teachers teach a couple of subjects per stream unlike
the orthodox teaching of all syllabus subjects. Within the trajectory of
subject sharing, it is worth emphasizing that different schools have different
positions on its continuance. The same can be said of subject specialization,
however, schools that have the organizational feeling that it is working for
them have the privilege to continue with the exercise and those who did not
benefit from the piloting are at liberty to throw the exercise into the archives.
REC. 26 With regard to private
primary schools, the Commission propose that the government should maintain its
present policy on private English medium schools and the fees Batswana children
attending private schools should not be subsidized. In addition, private
primary schools should participate in in-service training programmes. This is
the case in some regions whereas in other regions, private schools operate in
isolation especially in urban areas where they are in abundance.
REC. 27 The Commission recommended
that the present policy of joint responsibility for primary education should
continue. Nonetheless, basic education finds itself at cross roads in this
regard. Sometimes there is some kind of finger pointing between the local and
central government structures in terms of services that they provide for basic
education as a result of budgetary constraints. This is not to entirely dismiss
the joint handling of basic education by the local and central government
because improvement in service delivery is noticeable especially after the
decentralization exercise.
In conclusion, the article does not
purport to politicize the RNPE 1994 recommendations in any way. It is rather,
to ignite in educational policy understanding for the parents, teachers and
students at tertiary pursuing education courses. Some short and long term
recommendations have rightfully been implemented by the government,
nevertheless, a lot needs to be done in this regard.
Oabona M. Sello
MEd Social Studies
University of Botswana
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