The President of Botswana Secondary Teachers Union (BOSETU), Shandukani Hlabano, has warned the government against educational reforms in England having a negative impact on the educational system of Botswana.
Addressing a BOSETU Congress recently held in Francistown, he said that due to the fact that Botswana has modelled its curriculum according to the English education curriculum, such a transformation could have serious implications on the local education system.
“The English have reverted to the old O-level curriculum and if that happens we should know that the situation might impact negatively on our education system if we do not see how we can mitigate the problem now because we benchmarked on their model. In England students will sit for the GCSE papers for the last time in 2015,” he said.
He advised that there is a serious need by the government to go back to the drawing board and come up with initiatives of cushioning the problem before it is caught unaware.
Touching on other issues, Hlabano expressed concern over the decline of the quality of education in the country, adding that the government needs to value education as an important tool for development. He added that it is high time that government invest heavily into education for the country to prosper.
“Countries with leading economies around the world are those that invest in education,” he said.
He advised Botswana to copy from countries like China and India, which have invested heavily in education. He said that economists project that in 2050 the economy of China would be 20 percent larger than that of the United States of America, adding that the growth is attributed to the country’s investment in education.
“There will be a paradigm shift in superpower dynamics with China and India becoming the leading economies of the world in 2050, which is about 38 years from now. Enrolment in schools and colleges in those countries is on the rise due to their investment in education,” he said.
The BOSETU Annual Congress was celebrated under the theme; “Meaningful Social Dialogue; a remedy to challenges in the education sector,” The union was also celebrating its 25th Anniversary.
