01 Jul 2014

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Botswana interim representative, Dr Gloria Kodzwa says her office is currently working with the  Botswana to improve the life of children, particularly the vulnerable ones.

During her interaction with the media recently, Dr Kodzwa said Botswana was one of the few countries in Africa that had made considerable progress in the provision of equitable access to basic education.

However, she noted that a considerable number of children were still not accessing school; UNICEF was working in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Skills Development through the Out of School Education for Children programme. 

She said through the programme, vulnerable and marginalised children would return and succeed in school and where possible they would be provided with alternative skills-based education routes that lead to further education, employment or entrepreneurship.

Dr Kodzwa further noted that UNICEF appreciated the commitment of the government of Botswana in her quest for the provision of basic education for all.

“I realise the government is strongly committed but the results are declining, the pass rate is low, and also not all the children go to school. As UNICEF, we need to understand the pitfalls and fill in the gaps,” she said.

She said they had realised that in Botswana, after 10 years of schooling through primary and junior secondary school, only about a third of children got good grades (A-CD).

“After seven years of primary only about two thirds of children got what is acceptable and the results keep decreasing year-on-year,” she said.

She said the post 2015 development agenda  for Africa with respect to education was focused on the quality of learning. ENDS