19 Mar 2015

Government has been advised to change the current education system and focus on school-based reforms that would target areas of weakness in schools for attention and intervention.

Presenting a statement on the 2014 Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) results, Leader of the Opposition, Mr Duma Boko said to understand the educational crisis was not  a matter of the education budget or budgetary constraints of running a well-functioning education system.

He said the cyclical crisis in the education system meant challenges had to be confronted aggressively and systematically.

“We need to address urgently a number of key issues, less than satisfactory management at the school level, poor working environment for teachers, poor preparation of students for secondary schooling, intellectually unhealthy learning environment for learners and their teachers and a disconnect between the desired outcomes and the practice on the ground, marked by lack of a compelling or animating vision at all levels to push the desired outcomes,” he said.

Mr Boko, who is also Member of Parliament for Gaborone Bonnington North, said pass rates below 50 per cent were unacceptable in a country in which more than two thirds of the annual budget went to education. He added that with the public investing so much in education, better returns were expected from the investment.

Another observation, Mr Boko highlighted was that schools in the western and north western parts of the country were underperforming.

“Private schools have now become the default destinations for children of the poor, further sinking them into the muck and mire of grinding poverty. This is not out of choice but out of desperation. That 9 266 candidates were privately registered in the examinations is testimony to the phenomenal failure of the public education system,” he said.

Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi explained to Parliament that there was actually nothing new in what the Leader of Opposition was presenting to the house.

He said there was ample evidence from reputable international organisations such as the World Bank that there was good performance from the education sector notwithstanding shortcomings in the recent past. He said government implemented a number of serious activities some involving money to adjust to challenges in the decline in performance.

Commenting, MP for Francistown West, Mr Ignatius Moswaane said the 2011 industrial strike had far reaching implications on the performance of students countrywide. He said he was surprised by the statement of Mr Boko as he was amongst those who entertained the idea of teachers staying away from students for a period of close to three months.

Minister of Education and Skills Development, Dr Unity Dow asked the Gaborone Bonnington North legislator on what could be a fair expenditure to education. She said as a matter of fact there was a strategic plan that was being developed by her ministry and it’s on its final stages. ENDS