24 Jul 2019

In line with the demands of the fourth industrial revolution, Botswana will soon find itself in a trajectory of transforming its learner base into intellectual capital capable of developing the country into a prosperous nation.

Speaking during a recent high level reference meeting in Gaborone which discussed Education and Training Sector Strategic Plan of Botswana (ETSSP) frameworks,

Ministry of Basic Education permanent secretary Ms Bridget John said systemic transformation had to be done at all levels of education in order to transform learning in the country.

According to Ms John, Botswana had adopted an outcome based approach to transforming education through ETSSP frameworks in order to curb the overreliance on exam results as a measure of learning quality and also to counter dwindling professionalism in teaching.

Ms John said priority areas were to improve quality and relevance, access and retention, lifelong learning as well as skills and development.

To achieve them, she said, six National Curriculum Assessment frameworks key decision points which include a redesign of the number of years of study in primary education, a phasing out approach of the primary education national examinations and a refocus of science as an elective at senior secondary school including an introduction of A-levels equivalence education after senior school and the introduction of multiple pathways at secondary schools had been identified.

She said the deficits forecasted for three years in NDP 11 would have negative budgetary implications for the implementation of ETSSP.

Ms John however said the ETSSP document was still work in progress citing a few outstanding issues such as considerations in cascading pathways for student’s progression but said the ministry already had an indicative measure of the cost of implementation.

“Stakeholders should make relevant and informed decisions that prioritise resource allocation to implement ETSSP,” she said.

Because of the heavy financial transactions that would go into kick-starting the ETSSP project, Ms John said the ministry and related stakeholders had opted for gradual implementation guided by resource allocations.

The project, according to Ms John, cut across all priority sectors such as primary, secondary, tertiary as well as vocational training levels including regulatory and approval boards which would demand high level coordination to ensure achievement of the right level of implementation.

Mr Shadrack Majwabe, chief ETSSP officer in the ministry, noted that the six decision points were measures aimed at strengthening learners’ acquisition of relevant knowledge and skills.

He said the programmes discussed would contribute to the overall education sector goals by giving all learners an opportunity to take part in their area of interest without being churned out of the education system because they lacked proficiencies in other areas.

Mr Majwabe said the introduction of multiple pathways at secondary school would be a new structure of schools specializations introduction vocational and educational modular curriculum were subjects that would be used to students to assess learning.

The pathways project envisaged different types of schools which demanded that teachers be trained in order to mitigate the risk of using the same curricular as in the previous system.

Mr Majwabe reiterated that the ministry was in the process of phasing out primary education national examinations, which Botswana Examinations Council (BEC) says were never meant to be a high stake exam but a diagnostic tool.

“There is an approach by BEC to make formative learning assessment to ensure that there is learning in primary schools which may be used to subsume the Standard VII exam,” said Mr Majwabe.

The programmes, including other reforms for the different education ministerial portfolios will focus on decentralisation, coordination, planning, allocation and monitoring to ensure transformation of the education sector. ENDS