14 May 2014

There can be no improvement in the teaching environment for students to perform well in their academics without the embrace of educational research, policy formulation and implementation.

Officiating in a two-day workshop for Botswana Educational Research Association (BERA) in Maun, the Executive Administrator, Mr Vincent Mafuta, said the poor performance of students in the North West Region was their adequate concern.

Mr Mafuta said they intend to train the teachers in the region in order to implement a conducive research environment in their respective schools to improve students’ academics in the region. Mr Mafuta said there are modern technologies students’ uses and also the environment they live in are all different compared to some years back, as this gives a huge challenge to teachers.

He noted that BERA had its objectives in place in order to improve the situation and hopefully by 2016, they will be able to look back and see a difference.

As an association they aim to bridge the gap between educational researchers, policy makers and practitioners in Botswana.

He said they also want to provide a hand on training in educational research in order to build local research capacity and expertise in Botswana. Mr Mafuta said they also aim to co-ordinate educational research activities in the country and to serve as Botswana’s outreaching arm in disseminating information on educational research within the region.

Furthermore, Mr Mafuta said their journey started in the North West region where they trained 60 teachers and they are positively responding well in some areas.

The vice chairperson of BERA, Ms Joyce Modie, who is also the Principal Education Officer in the North East region, said she was overwhelmed by the positive outcomes of the awareness workshop.

Ms Modie noted that the positive response from teachers towards their academic duties and the good interactions of Parents and Teachers Associations (PTAs) in schools as they held annual workshops to attend matters concerning students is welcome.

This, she said, was something that would yield good results. ENDS