07 Dec 2025

The Botswana Examinations Council (BEC) is in the process of developing a new Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) certificate, as the education parastatal will no longer be offering joint certification with Cambridge University Press and Assessment (CUPA).

This was revealed by the Minister of Child Welfare and Basic Education, Ms Nono Kgafela-Mokoka while delivering a statement in Parliament on December 4.

Ms Kgafela-Mokoka said subsequent to a BEC board resolution of August 2024 to approve a strategy to gradually withdraw from the CUPA Accreditation with Certification contract, a decision, which was endorsed by cabinet in October, BEC entered into a new contract with the British institution.

“BEC entered a three-year Accreditation without Certification contract. This was done to ensure that BEC continues to receive independent quality assurance of the assessment operations for the delivery of credible qualifications. This is a scaled down contract, which will cost about £562 000 (P10 million) annually compared to the previous contract, which cost P27 million annually,” Ms Kgafela-Mokoka said.

She clarified that the amendment of the contract meant that from the 2025 examination series, BEC and Cambridge would no longer issue a joint certificate to BGCSE candidates and that BEC would independently design and issue a new certificate under their own authority.

Ms Kgafela-Mokoka said the BEC board had approved the new design of the 2025 BGCSE certificate at their sitting in August, and that the current Accreditation without Certification CUPA contract would run until the 2027 examination cycle.

“While the down scaled quality assurance contract is running, BEC has begun the process of identifying a local partner with capacity to assume the role of external quality assurance to the BEC qualifications starting 2028 examination cycle,” Ms Kgafela-Mokoka said.

She said external quality assurance of assessment processes was critical as it ensured that standards for both the assessment and its associated curriculum did not drift overtime as well as instilling confidence stakeholders had in the qualification.

Ms Kgafela-Mokoka said BEC, a parastatal under the ministry, was mandated to manage and conduct examinations and assessments in general education, technical vocational education and training and to award certificates in respect of the said examinations and assessments.

She further said the BEC and CUPA partnership dated back to the time BEC functions were operated by the Examinations, Research and Testing Division division of the then Ministry of Education.

Over the years CUPA assisted government to replace the then Cambridge Overseas School Certificate (COSC) by developing a localised qualification that was recognised internationally and also equivalent to International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) as recommended in the Revised National Policy on Education of 1994.

This led to the establishment of the (BGCSE).

Further to developing BGCSE, CUPA was to monitor the application of assessment standards across all examination processes on a yearly basis to ensure that the BGCSE qualification maintains international recognition and global competitiveness.

From 1999 to 2011 the ERTD and later BEC, worked in collaboration with CUPA across all examination processes.

“Since inception of the relationship, BEC pays an annual fee that is currently around £1,400 000, about P27 million, subject to exchange rate at the point of payment. The main cost driver in this agreement is certifying at individual candidate level. The cost has escalated to a level that is unsustainable to BEC. Further to that, BEC has matured overtime and now has the capacity to conduct some of the examination processes without support from CUPA. It is on the basis of the forgoing that the council found it prudent to scale down further and gradually withdraw from the accreditation agreement,” Ms Kgafela-Mokoka said.

She stressed that other than the engagement of local external quality assurance, BEC would participate in the regional quality assurance processes of the Southern Africa Association for Educational Assessment (SAAEA), a network of Southern African examination bodies.

Ms Kgafela-Mokoka said the ministry and BEC would engage in stakeholder engagement.

Commenting on the update, Molepolole North MP, Mr Shima Monageng was concerned that learners should be paying less examination fees since BEC would be paying less to CUPA.

Kanye North legislator, Mr Prince Mosasana raised a further concern of BEC being a parastatal engaging teachers to assist with the invigilation and marking of examinations but their payments occasionally being processed late. ENDS