14 Jul 2022

For the education and training system to improve, everyone should play their part, Acting President Slumber Tsogwane said Tuesday. 

He was speaking in Palapye, at the Botswana Teacher’s Union (BTU) 6^th triennial congress of delegates.

He said last year, only 32.56 per cent of learners who sat their Junior Certificate Examinations got Grade C or better, down from 33.16 per the previous year, which was a 0.06 per cent decline. 

For Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education only 21.20 per cent got a credit pass in 2021, a woeful 0.03 per cent improvement on the previous year’s performance.

Mr Tsogwane said performance of the education system was a measure of its effectiveness. 

The Acting President said  it was important for educators, to work together with inspectors Botswana Educational Research Association to conduct research on teaching processes. 

That would enable them to identify factors negatively affecting students’ performance, he said. 

“While various bottlenecks have delayed the transformation of our education and skills development system to give us the human capital we need to compete effectively in the 21st century, they are not insurmountable,” Mr Tsogwane said. 

 The Acting President said empowering educators must be understood in the context of the current realities of the education system.  

He said it was important for government and stakeholders to work together, using limited resources to empower educators and transform the education system. 

“Our children deserve first rate education. 

That is what we as a country desire for them,” said Mr Tsogwane. 

BTU president, Mr Gotlamang Oitsile said teachers’ contribution and dedication to see Botswana competing with the rest of the world in education and human resource development was an open secret.

He said their predecessors laid a rock-solid foundation that had stood the test of time. BOPA