06 Apr 2017

The managing Director of Macmillan Botswana Ms Felicity Leburu-Sianga has said there is need to focus on learners being able to use what they have learnt in new situations for the betterment of their lives.

Speaking during the National Curriculum/Macmillan conference on Competency Based Education in Gaborone ,Ms Leburu-Sianga told delegates from Botswana and Swaziland that education was a process and a road to a better understanding and use of the resources, where there were challenges and there was need to prepare, be adaptive and flexible to be critical thinkers and problem solvers.

She continued to say the conference gave delegates from the two countries an opportunity to share ideas, prioritise and focus on developing the whole child. “We should aim to interrogate all the aspects of learning so that we strike balance in what we do,” she said.

Director for National Curriculum Centre Swaziland, Dr Ntombenhle Dlamini said curriculum was developed using different tools and Swaziland has engaged a tool called Comparative education and historical perspective. “We are seeing Africa reconsidering her curriculum by planning together to move in certain approaches in the way they offer education,all ministries of education in different states are concerned with keeping up to date with the demands of the current century ,”she said.

She noted that there were a range of curriculum reforms from Botswana and other countries which Swaziland could learn from. “As Swaziland, we cannot sit and observe our counterparts moving and furthering about change.

The ministry of education through the government of Swaziland has also seen it fit to change curriculum to suit the current needs and address the challenges we are faced with and we believe we can learn a lot from Botswana experience,” she said.

The conference has brought together a delegation of curriculum planners, designers and developers from Swaziland and Botswana to bench mark from one another on how they can best improve the education system into being competency based. ENDS