Introduction
Article
# 28 of the universal Declaration of Human Rights Charter explicitly states
that education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages
of every child www.un.org.
Therefore countries are by law bound to provide education to their citizens and
even foreigners on conditions set out by their sovereign constitutions. Large
sums of money are pumped into education to meet the targets of conventions
which countries are signatory to, in line with universal education for all. Education for all is not the same thing
as quality education for all (World Education Forum, 2000). The implication
that can be drawn from the afore stated words is that, although countries are
in pursuit of Education for All goals, they experience problems like low
quality of teachers and high teacher pupil ratio which impede upon the quality
and standards of their education systems especially at the level of primary,
junior and secondary schools.
It
is thus the intent of this essay to focus specifically on the public concern
about the declining quality of Primary School Leaving Examinations in Botswana
with distinctive attention on the use of John Dewey’s philosophical trends to
transform and improve the quality and standard of our education. This will be
done in a pragmatic manner as maybe espoused by the head of department
responsible for quality and standards in the ministry of education. Although
the transformative philosophical approach discussed herein, focuses on primary
education for purposes of avoiding generosity, it would also be applicable at
secondary levels.
State of the results over the years
Primary
School Leaving Examinations:
|
Year |
2012 |
2011 |
2010 |
2009 |
2008 |
2007 |
|
% Pass |
65% |
64% |
69.4% |
68.2% |
69.8% |
72.9% |
Adopted
from: allafrica.com
From
the above tabulation it is evident that the Botswana examinations results are
on the decline as far back as 2004(see also appendices). This has also led to
the concern that the quality and standards of the education system in our
country is on a decline too.
Validating the concern
The
continued deterioration of the results and quality of education has not gone
down well with the stakeholders involved. The state president, minister of
education and skills development, legislators, media, opposition parties,
unions representing workers and parents have all made their concerns known. The
president has of late dispatched ministers and permanent secretaries in other
ministries to go all out and in full force to ascertain what could be the cause
of underperformance (Sundaystandard, 2014 and BWgovernment, 2014A). Articulating
her feelings about the 2013 JC examination results, the minister said
“naturally, I don’t feel as happy as I should about the outcome. I want to turn
the results around quicker” (BWgovernment, 2014B).
Botswana
is currently implementing the Revised National Policy on Education. This policy
has acknowledged that the expansion of schools has had an adverse effect on the
quality of education (RNPE, 1994). www.unicef.org further asserts that the
teacher pupil ratio has gone up and facilitators cannot easily interact with
each and every learner in the class as much as they would like to.
According
to Ratsatsi (2005) the education sector is faced with a plethora of issues
which has led to the status quo. These challenges are and not limited to teacher
attrition mainly due to lack thereof pre-primary education, in-service
training, teacher salaries and motivation, school heads as instructional
leaders and support providers for teachers, quality of the teacher and quality
of pre-service training. The school heads are finding it difficult to provide
professional guidance pertaining to pedagogy. Universal pre-primary education
has really been neglected, but it can reduce some of the disparities already
existing between the rural and urban areas and obviously the country stands to
benefit if it was implemented
This
trend where results are taking a nose dive implies that the country will not be
able to attain the targets of the National Development Plans 8 and 9, Vision
2016, Education For All and Millennium Development Goals. It goes without
saying that there is an urgent need for a paradigm shift from the status quo
and this can only be done through transformative approaches with the guidance
of the pragmatic principles outlined by John Dewey.
Summary of John Dewey’s philosophy
According
to (Colby & Witt,2002) “educators today reflect on the wisdom and vision of
John Dewey as much or more than they did almost 100 years ago when Dewey began
his writing and speaking about the role and future of education in society”(p.1).
To him, education is not preparation for life, education is life itself.
Education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future
living”.
In his personal philosophy of education termed
“my pedagogical creed” Dewey (1897) basically summarizes his ideas into the strands
of experiential education, the school’s role, educational process role and
teacher’s role. With regards to experiential education, Dewey stresses the
concept of “instrumentalism” in education on “learning by doing or hands-on
learning”, which means to learn not only by the theory, but also by the practice.
The school is not only as a place to gain content knowledge, but also as a
place to learn how to live. The purpose of education should be the realization
of everybody’s full potential and the ability to use any skills for the greater
good.
The
educational structure should make a balance between the learner and the
curriculum, that is to say, delivering knowledge while also taking into account
their interests and experiences. In this case the teacher should be a
facilitator and guider. He becomes a partner in the learning process who leads learners
to independently discover meaning within the subject area.
Thus, when a teacher as a facilitator, uses
Dewey’s theory learners will learn to participate actively and develop personal
interest in the classroom lessons, becoming lifelong and independent learners www.ehow.com.
Applying pragmatic approaches to turn
around the results
It
is imperative to mention that when the results are in a poor state, the head of
department responsible for quality and standards within the concerned ministry should
take transformative and pragmatic steps to correct the anomaly.
As
a head of department, the writer will advocate for the introduction of
compulsory preschool education for every child. It is important to catch them
young and raw because at this stage they still have the energy to learn through
art, music and play. Preschool will stimulate the learner’s powers of learning
in social situations with other learners as a member of a unity, to emerge from
his original narrowness of action, feeling and to conceive of himself from the
standpoint of the welfare of the group to which he belongs (Dewey, 1897). In preschool, a learner is also provided with
the opportunity to develop a sufficient foundation of knowledge that will later
support in comprehending some issues, drawing of inferences and interpersonal
relations. According to (Robert, 2011) aside from basic knowledge, a learner in
preschool is also taught to solve problems, creativity, aestheticism, number
awareness and other cognitive skills which a vital to the process of living and
or education. For example, appreciation of school and societal pluralism.
In
an attempt to move away from the perennial approaches to teaching like
recitation and exposition, I would send a strong worded directive to the
curriculum implementers and supervisors to apply liberal and pragmatic methods
to transform instruction at school level. This is because the former disregards
the ability of the learner whist the latter is in tandem with Dewey’s believe
that the active side precedes the passive in the development of the learner and
the neglect of this principle is waste of time and strength in school work.
Hence in teaching, the learner should not be thrown into a passive, receptive
or absorbing attitude of learning. An antithesis of the negligence of this
principle is that, learning should focus on the real participation of those
receiving it for it to be meaningful and follow the law of his nature (Boud,
Keogh and Walker, 1985). Therefore, learners will learn in a democratic and
free environment.
The
other noteworthy transformation strategy that could be applied is revamping the
testing or assessment of learners at primary level. In my opinion, the use of
objective tests to assess subjects that are more practical does not serve the
purpose. The objective testing of Agriculture
and Creative and Performing Arts attest to the fact that our education needs a
paradigm shift. To transform the situation, these kinds of subjects have to be
tested practically like it is the case with Physical Education, Home Economics
and Agriculture at secondary level. In fact, in lieu to objective tests, course
work should be incorporated therein. This type of assessment encourages
learning by doing and experimentation advocated for by Dewey. It also takes
into account the social nature of the learner and does not detach learners from
the education that their guardians give them. We cannot dispute the fact that
Batswana are traditionally hands on people and rely much on agriculture for
their living.
One
of the things that have been relegated to the background is remedial teaching
because teachers are hiding behind the issues of hours of work brought by the
new public service act and high teacher student ratio. Although the reasons
they advance maybe reasonable, priority should be afforded the learners. The
status quo is such that remedial teaching and learning is dormant in schools
and this call for transforming the situation through the establishment of committees
from cluster, inspectorate, regional and national level reporting to the head
of quality and standards for monitoring purposes. This unfortunate situation is
compounded by the fact that learners enter primary education without a solid foundation,
fail to do well in breakthrough at standard one, graduate to junior and senior
secondary with D grades. According to Davis (1975) it is a challenging task for
teachers on the ground who are doing the spade work. However, in acknowledging
this fact, the message has to be communicated down to them that the time is now
to transform our education. Just like Dewey put it, every teacher should realize
the dignity of his calling, that he is a social servant set apart for the
maintenance of what in education terms is considered a shortcoming through
remedial activities.
Borrowing
from Pansiri’s (2011) study, I would afford school heads the space and duty to
deal with the school calendar issue in transformative and creative ways to accommodate
diversities and variations of communities where their schools are located. A
good example of fiddling with the calendar is the hosting of the All Africa
Youth games by Botswana this year on days traditionally used for learning.
According to (Crossley and Watson, 2003) in Pansiri (2011) school heads will
deviate from being passive recipients of prescribed EFA and MGD policies on
access to basic education when they are trusted with such space and
professional freedom.
The
last philosophical approach which I would employ, though subject to approval by
the cabinet because it is rather political, will be teaching of learners in
their mother tongue at preschool level and the formative years of primary
education. This is substantiated by Dewey’s philosophy that language should be
seen beyond the expression of thought, that is, as a logical, fundamental and
primary social instrument. It is the device for communication through which one
individual comes to share their ideas and feelings with others. According to
(Nyathi-Ramahobo, 1996, Polelo, 2006 and Tshireletso, 2007) in Pansiri (2011)
curriculum materials have to be written in the child’s mother language for
purposes of change and innovation.
A lot of transformative approaches have been
introduced within the ministry only to fail because teachers as implementers
were overlooked. Hence, all transformative strategies suggested by the head of
department to be employed must involve the teachers from the onset as they are
the ones in contact with the learners and it is through them that we can make a
difference (Ratsatsi, 2005).
Summary
Education
is globally seen as the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values and behaviors
that guide human beings in the process of learning. According to
(Gaolatlhe,1997) in Pansiri (2011)
Botswana has committed itself to building an educated and informed
nation so that they become good citizens who can in turn be of benefit to their
societies and country. However, the failure of the education system to produce
quality products becomes a concern because the future of any state lies in
having educated people to take it forward. Developing countries like Botswana
have to apply philosophical approaches grounded on pragmatism like
experimentation and discovery learning to transform themselves since the
academic results at primary, junior and secondary schools are on a decline.
References
Boud,
D., Keogh, R. and Walker, D. (Eds.) (1985). Reflection: Turning Experience into
Learning Kogan Page. London.
BWgovernment.29
January (2014). 26 000 To Proceed to form 4.https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/BWgovernment.
BWgovernment.8/February
(2014A) .Bweekend Comment: “Teaching-The Noble Profession”. https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/BWgovernment.
Colby,
J. & Witt, M. (2002). International
Working Group on Education Conference. Rome: UNICEF.
p. 1-43.
Davis,
E. J. (1975). A Proposal for the In-Service Training of Teachers of Remedial
Courses: The High School Journal .Vol. 59, No. 3. p. 148-151.
Dewey,
J. (1897). My Pedagogic Creed. School
Journal. Vol. 54(1) p. 77-80.
http://www.bec.co.bw/results/past-results.
Accessed 13/2/2014.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201003090147.html.
Accessed 13/2/2014.
http://www.ehow.com/how_7771928_apply-john-deweys-theories-classroom.
Accessed28/1/2014.
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml#a3.
Universal declaration of human rights charter. Accessed 18/2/2014.
Pansiri,
O. N. (2011). Silent Exclusion: The Unheard Voices in the Remote Areas of
Botswana. International Journal of Educational Science. Vol 3(2). p.109-118.
Pansiri,
O. N. (2011). Performativity in School Management and Leadership in Botswana. Educational
Management Administration and Leadership. Vol. 39 (6). p. 750-766.
Revised
National Policy on Education. (1994). Government of Botswana. Gaborone. Government Printers.
Robert,
C. (2011). Importance of Preschool Education. http://www.journaland.com/Art/323039/185/Importance-Of-Preschool-Education.html.
Accessed 18/2/2014.
Sundaystandard.
(2014). Ministry of Education Commissions Self Probe. http://www.sundaystandard.info/article.php?NewsID.
Accessed 20/2/2014.
Swortzel,
K. (Ed). (1996). Assessment of Student Achievement and Learning: What Would Dewey say? A “Recent” Interview With
John Dewey. Journal of Vocational and
Technical Education. Volume 13
(1).
World Education Forum, 2000). http://www.unesco.org/education/wef/en-press/press- kitqual.shtm. Accessed 18/2/2014.
Appendices
Primary School Leaving Examinations:
|
Year |
2012 |
2011 |
2010 |
2009 |
2008 |
2007 |
|
% Pass |
65% |
64% |
69.4% |
68.2% |
69.8% |
72.9% |
Adopted
from: allafrica.com
PSLE RESULTS: 2004-2009
|
District |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
|
Central |
40.8 |
36.4 |
40.2 |
31.7 |
31.5 |
30.8 |
|
North West |
31.8 |
29.6 |
30.9 |
21.4 |
25.1 |
24.5 |
|
Francistown |
60.7 |
55.8 |
60.1 |
47.5 |
25.2 |
50.3 |
|
Gaborone |
59.5 |
55.2 |
58.6 |
51.5 |
52.5 |
49.8 |
|
Gantsi |
26.2 |
25.9 |
23 |
19.6 |
16.3 |
17.8 |
|
Jwaneng |
65.6 |
66.4 |
78.5 |
63.8 |
62.1 |
63.7 |
|
Kgalagadi |
25.1 |
28.4 |
27.8 |
22.2 |
19.4 |
17.3 |
|
Kgatleng |
44.9 |
40.5 |
44.2 |
35.4 |
34.4 |
31.1 |
|
Kweneng |
37.8 |
34.6 |
37.3 |
29.6 |
27.8 |
26.9 |
|
Lobatse |
50.7 |
51.4 |
52.8 |
43.8 |
42.6 |
46.5 |
|
North East |
47.4 |
40.7 |
48.4 |
32.7 |
37.8 |
33.6 |
|
Selibe Phikwe |
77.2 |
69.5 |
71 |
59 |
63.1 |
58.3 |
|
South East |
45.4 |
45.8 |
41.5 |
41.3 |
40.1 |
40 |
|
Southern |
37.3 |
34.2 |
34.8 |
26.6 |
25.9 |
23.9 |
Adopted from: Pansiri (2011)
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