20 Jan 2026

Back-to-school season is never a quiet affair, especially in primary schools. For teachers, it signals the beginning of long days, limitless pati ence and the responsibility of shaping young minds. During a visit to a primary school on the first day of classes on Tuesday, the frenzy was immediate and unmistakable.

For some pupils, it was an exciting return to friends, playti me and new discoveries. For others, it was a daunti ng leap into u n f a m i l i a r r o u t i n e s , new teachers and  bigger expectations. T h e environment was messy, loud and downright chaoti c, leaving me wondering whether teachers were fully prepared for the mayhem. Barely an hour into the school day, several standard two learners already had untucked shirts and dusty shoes fr om running around playing tag.

One litt le girl had opened her lunchbox too early, sending red juice spewing into the air and splashing all over her face. Then came the moment I knew I would not leave without witnessing: children crying after their mothers as they were left “alone” at school. It reminded me of my own first day in standard one.

Walking hand in hand with my father across the road to my new school, I had cried uncontrollably. Having completed two years of preschool, I must have believed that school life was over and that I was headed for a future of freedom and endless Sesame Street, especially my favorites, Cookie Monster and Elmo’s World. I was wrong.

Looking back now, I realise it was never school I feared, but the tr ansiti on to a bigger, unfamiliar place - a feeling I would experience again years later when starting secondary school and university . Whether excited, anxious, shy or tearful, it is clear that teachers always have their hands full. I watched one young teacher calmly soothe a crying child, reprimand another for leaving the school premises to buy sweets, and attend to several pupils.

At 90 years, with over four decades of teaching experience, retired primary school teacher Ms Rosemary Mongwa, encouraged current teachers to seek wisdom from veteran educators like herself. Photo: Courtesy of Ms Mongwa’s family outlines new teachers and bigger expectations.

“I am losing my mind,” she told me. “It is only day one, and I feel like I have already lost it.”

With no words of comfort to offer, I thought of retired primary school teacher Ms Rosemary Mongwa, whose wisdom from decades in the classroom might hold the answers teachers seek today. At 90 years, with over four decades of teaching experience, Ms Mongwa still spoke of the classroom with a spark in her eyes.

She taught in some of Botswana’s most remote areas, served as a headmaster whose school achieved a pass rate ranging from 70 to 90 per cent, and taught pupils who would later become national leaders, including Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Mr Nelson Ramaotwana.

For her, patience, informed judgement and exemplary behaviour were the foundati ons of successful teaching. “No matter how misbehaved a child is, a teacher must always be fair and never lose warmth,” she said, adding that she has always opposed corporal punishment. She believes teachers must look beyond bad behaviour and understand a child’s background before making decisions and assume the positi on of second parent, treating children as though they were their own.

W hile concerned that education quality is declining in Botswana, Ms Mongwa encouraged current teachers to revisit older teaching guides and seek wisdom fr om veteran educators like herself. “I hope that today’s teachers can be the type of exemplary figures that their students will have a hard ti me forgetting,” she said. ENDS