20 Mar 2025

Government has come up with robust and radical interventions to refine early childhood learning.

In the next 60 days, government will deploy a school, every month until it reaches 50 schools that will operate differently from those already existing, President Advocate Duma Boko said during a courtesy call by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) regional director for East and Southern Africa, Ms Etleva Kadilli in Gaborone yesterday.

With or without resources, President Boko said government was committed and would do its best to see this development through, saying the first school would be started within the coming week in Gaborone, Block 7.

“This school will have 300 learners. We will have preschool fully catered for and we will have the rest of the classes. This school is modelled differently and we will provide the learners with tablets that will be replaced every two years and will ensure that we run a feeding programme where learners will eat two healthy meals during the school time,” said President Boko.

He said he was sharing the plan with UNICEF to, in a way indirectly enlist their support and participation in the programme, saying once fully rolled out, government would locate some of the schools in the most far-flung areas and the quality would be the same for all.

“We would like UNICEF to be a partner in this programme,” President Boko said.

This development stems from challenges government has identified in childhood learning, which President Boko said, “its on a very limited scale and does not even take the two years that it is supposed to take. Where we are doing it at all, it’s but one year.”

President Boko said government established the Ministry of Child Welfare and Basic Education  to strengthen the educational system and give prominence to issues affecting children. He appreciated the assistance that UNICEF had given and continued to give to Botswana especially in promoting and protecting the child rights agenda. In an effort to ensure support and assist parents, he said government had introduced a grant of P300 per month, until the baby’s first birthday.

“We hope to sustain this programme and we will be happy to also be guided in terms of the proper implementation of this and any other programmes relating to children,” he added.

Ms Kadilli for her part, applauded government for focusing on the elementary stage and welfare of children, saying that providing them with access to early childhood development opportunities had a high social and economic return for the future.

She commended government for establishing child-friendly centres across the country, which she hailed as a true testimony of government’s commitment to ensuring the protection of children’s rights and safety by providing a conducive environment with the privacy and confidentiality required in addressing issues affecting children.

Ms Kadilli was accompanied by the outgoing UNICEF Botswana representative, Dr Joan Matji, who has been re-assigned to UNICEF headquarters effective April. ENDS