27 Nov 2018

Assistant Minister of Basic Education, Mr Thato Kwerepe says there are no plays at present to introduce civil education as an extra-curricular subject.

Mr Kwerepe said the ministry had ensured that students were socially aware through civil education, which was an integral part of the basic education curriculum across all levels.

He was answering a question in Parliament on November 26 from Ramotswa legislator, Mr Samuel Rantuana.

He noted that a multi-disciplinary and multi-perspective approach to learning was used that draws content from various subjects from the social sciences and humanities curricular to sensitise learners on civics.

Mr Kwerepe further noted that schools had introduced subject-based clubs from the humanities including social sciences, development studies, geography and history.

The clubs, he said had been established as part of the co-curricular programme to fill identified gaps in the curricular.

He said learners carry out a variety of activities involving political awareness through inter-school debate competitions, which look at a variety of issues affecting Botswana society and the rest of the world.

He noted that the student administrative structure also promoted civic education through the election of student representative councils, prefects and class monitors.

“To augment school-based efforts, all stakeholders in governance, such as the political leadership, civil community, religious groups and workers unions must be encouraged to provide adequate public education on issues relating to civic education,” he said.

Mr Rantuana had asked the minister whether he would consider introducing civic education as an extra-curricular subject in schools considering the level of political awareness in the society.

Meanwhile, Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Ms Botlogile Tshireletso has confirmed that headmen of arbitration for Bungu, Herero and Ntalabgwe were appointed on June, 2018, while those of Madanyika and Kopo wards were appointed on June 15, 2018 and July 2018 respectively.

All these headmen of arbitration, Ms Tshireletso said were paid effective from their dates of appointment.

MP for Boteti East, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe had asked the minister to appraise Parliament on the progress of installation of headmen of arbitration in the wards of Herero, Madanyika, Bungu, Kopo and Ntalabgwe in Mosu.

He had also wanted know when they would be paid. ENDS