26 Mar 2019

Ministry of Basic education is committed to provide inclusive education through the early assessment of Special Education need learners.

The ministry has also prioritised the training of staff in this critical area.

This was said by the Minister of Basic Education, Mr Bagalatia Arone in response to a question posed by MP for Mochudi West, Mr Gilbert Mangole in Parliament recently.

Mr Arone said government would implement multiple pathways in 2021, which would enable learners wider options more aligned to their abilities for greater transition to tertiary education.

He also mentioned that he was not satisfied with results obtained by visually impaired students who sat for Botswana General Certificate for Secondary Education (BGCSE).

He explained that 43 students sat for BGCSE at Molefi Senior Secondary School from 2016 to 2018.

Minister Arone pointed out that of the 43 students, 10 obtained over 31 points, nine obtained between 20 and 30 points, while 11 students obtained less than 19 points.

Further, he noted that of the 32 pupils who wrote in 2016 and 2017, two students proceeded to the University of Botswana, five proceeded to Limkokwing University of Applied Technology, one enrolled with the Institute of Development Management, six enrolled with Pudulogong Rehabilitation Centre for the Blind while one enrolled with the National Service Programme.

He told the House that of the 16 remaining pupils, one died and the other 15 failed to progress.

The minister cited a demanding syllabus as reasons behind the poor performance, adding that pupils might study up to nine subjects and some subjects had a lot of diagrams, graphs and pictures that posed some difficulties to a learner with visual impairment.

“There is inadequate brailled text books and tactile diagrams for all the subjects including library learning materials not being accessible to students with visual impairments to support the teaching and learning,” he said.

Further, he said, ‘class size did not cater for students with vision impairments as the ratio of one learner with vision impairment was equivalent to four sighted learners,’ he said.

Other reasons for poor performance included maintenance and servicing of specialised equipment, which is being done only in South Africa, where equipment is manufactured, acute shortage of specialist teachers with expertise in visual impairment as some were employed and placed in mainstream schools across the country.

The assistant minister explained that the ministry had a Braille Production Unit responsible for production of teaching and learning materials in accessible format being braille and audio.

“The ministry implements ‘Affirmative Action’ by provision of special dispensation for admission into tertiary institutions.

This strategy allows students with visual impairment and other disabilities admission into tertiary institutions with five points below the cut-off point of 36 for none disabled one,” he said.

Mr Mangole had asked the minister to state the number of visually impaired students who sat for BGCSE in the last three years in Kgatleng.

The minister was to state the results obtained and the number of students who proceeded to tertiary institutions and also if he was satisfied with the results obtained, if not what could be the reasons for such.

MP Mangole also wanted to know measures taken to improve such results going forward. Ends