12 Feb 2024

Research has shown that collaboration between government ministries, departments and educational stakeholders for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) is paramount in helping learners’s transition from one school to another.

Speaking during a consultation workshop with education stakeholders at Molepolole College of Education recently, University of Botswana Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, Dr Boitumelo Mangope said the research came about after the realisation that IDD pupils were overstaying in their programmes.

She said the research which started three years ago was aimed at coming up with transitional pathways through which IDD learners could graduate instead of aging in programmes they were engaged in without acquiring the necessary skills to be employed.

Dr Mangope however said Evaluation of Inclusive Education programmes for transition age students with Intellectual and developmental disabilities in Botswana research findings show absent transition pathways at policy level for learners with IDD.

She said the research objectives were to evaluate current practices adopted throughout the transition planning and identify associated facilitators and barriers in implementing transition programming for learners with IDD within inclusive education settings

Dr Mangope said  research sought to adapt existing school-to-work transition framework to develop a contextually and culturally specific framework and guidelines to inform the transition process and improve outcomes of pupils with IDD in Botswana.

She added that another objective was to build capacity and establish interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral collaboration among stakeholders by engaging them in continuous consultations throughout the study as well as sharing findings and resources and promoting the adoption of evidence-based transition framework and practice guidelines across Botswana.

One of the researchers and also Lecturer at Molepolole College of Education Mr Innocent Gabajesane said despite the presence of a systematic education framework guiding transition of learners in Botswana education system, there was no evident systematic transition framework guiding transition of learners with IDD in the special units.

He therefore said the research came in handy as it gave leverage to concerned departments to collaborate and come up with programming that helped IDD learners’ transition through the pathways.
Ms Keletso Olesitse, who is a person living with disability, said disability is not ability.

She encouraged people living with disabilities that they could  live better lives, saying they needed to put all their energies in their capabilities to open doors of opportunities.

She said she had had hydrocephalus disease from birth and had lived with the condition since she was born, but that did not deter her from living the life she wanted as she managed to graduate from the University of Botswana and found employment.  

The 34-year-old mother of two and encouraged parents to get help for their children living with disabilities and avoid hiding them.

Mr Omang Sepae, who has cerebral palsy and short-sightedness, encouraged parents to support their children living with any condition of disability and get help for them well on time.

He said growing up he did not know he had any disability as he lived like any normal child until he got to school and had to endure bullying.

Nevertheless, he said he was glad that he met teachers who helped him throughout his primary, junior and secondary schools until he went to pursue his Degree in Psychology in Canada where he learnt a lot about people with disabilities.

He said he believed that regardless of the condition one had, they could be what they wanted to be if they worked hard at it.

In her welcoming remarks, Kweneng Region chief education officer, Ms Maria Dikeme said the decentralisation programme of the Ministry of Education had led to the setting up of special schools with specialised classes for learners living with disabilities.

She said the education ministry had made sure that no disabled child was left behind in the  provision of special education services.

Ms Dikeme said nowadays disabled learners were taught by specialised well trained teachers qualified to teach such pupils with ease and help them learn along with others in a normal setup. ENDS