In line with the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP), government intends to increase senior secondary school enrolment by at leasteight per cent every year from 2026 onwards up to 100 per cent by 2030. 

Minister of Child Welfare and Basic Education, Ms Nono Kgafela-Mokoka told Parliament on Monday that the plan was a huge project that needed additional classrooms and teachers and that government was in the process of finalising the numbers accordingly. 

She said the current number of teachers employed for senior secondary education was 4 109 and a learner enrolment of 45 578. 

Ms Kgafela-Mokoka said classroom needs were imminent and they would be purely determined by the implementation of the STEAM-based education, digitalisation and registration and licensing of teachers. 

She said government heavily provided for the almost free education, save for cost sharing policy whose purpose was encouraging parents to be involved in their children’s education. 

Currently, she said the cost of educating a senior school learner was approximately P27 500 per annum. 

She said the ministry had prioritised increasing enrolment and retention of leaners from marginalised communities through different deliberate and targeted programmes. 

Central to these efforts is the implementation of the Botswana Languages Policy in Education (2022), which promotes inclusive education by ensuring that learners regardless of their geographical, cultural or socioeconomic background actively participate in learning from the early years of schooling, Ms Kgafela-Mokoka said. 

She said the policy, which was embedded in the General Education and Curriculum Framework (GECAF), ensured that early grade learners received instruction in linguistically and culturally responsive ways that strengthened their foundation and support transition into senior secondary school. 

GECAF she said, promoted contextualised life skills education as well as access oriented programmes including the multigrade programme and satellite schools, which were designed to support learners in remote or underserved areas to progress seamlessly into higher levels of education. In addition, the ministry has implemented the Out of School Education for Children programme which provides literacy and pre-vocational as well as vocational skills for children aged four and half to 18 who are outside the formal school system. OSEC supports reintegration into formal schooling and ensures that no leaner is left behind. 

she said the ministry would introduce Project Bula Buka with effect from March next year, whose aim is to provide educational access, skills training and character building to out-of-school JC leavers and remediation to BGCSE leavers and most importantly the education continuum. 

The project intends to meet the pressing needs for accessible and flexible education pathways for learners who are unable to complete their secondary education due to a number of factors, the minister explained. 

She was responding to a question from Kgatleng West MP, Dr Unity Dow who enquired on the enrolment rates for senior secondary, the number of additional teachers and classrooms that would be needed to attain the targets of 68 per cent by 2026/2027, 76 per cent by 2027/2028, 88 per cent by 2028/2029 and 100 per cent by 2029/2030. 

Dr Dow also asked the minister the cost of the project per year to attain these targets and what specific programmes she planned for marginalised communities.  ENDS