The Botswana education system was designed to produce critical thinkers, problem solvers and innovative students. However, the system is currently faced with a myriad of challenges as there are unprecedented proportions of graduates’ unemployment, poor performance from national examinations, and dropping out of school.
A 2019 research study which examined Botswana’s education system in comparison with the Asian education system, in particular South Korea, as its education system is known to be robust and efficient in producing learners who continuously make positive changes in transforming their nation concluded that education must be made compulsory in Botswana.
Although the Children’s Act of 2009 provides that every child has the right to free basic education, “this is not in practice since education begins at pre-preschool according to the Report of National Commission on Education of 1993. This also includes the disabled children who stay at home due to inadequate facilities and trained personnel who can deliver quality education to them, hence promoting inclusiveness in the country”.
The research study, titled, “Botswana’s Education System: A relative Analysis with South Korean Education System” undertaken by Aobakwe Barcos Malejane and Kabo Diraditsile also concluded that “elected representatives such as members of parliament, ministers, permanent secretaries in different ministries should be based on merit in order for them to be able to deliver on policies and relevant programmes that contribute to the growth and development of education”.
The paper further decried that “failure of students cannot be praised, and students who cannot perform well in schools need to be taken into assessment and discover their other abilities especially after junior school level”.
According to the research study, this would decrease the failure rates and promote these children’s talents and other abilities instead of forcing them to attend academic education where they will still get Ds and Xs.
The research further bemoans that “the teachers have lost morale; hence the officials in government should make sure they create a bridge between the government and teachers in order to praise this fallen morale”.
It is also reckoned by the research study that at all levels, education is more focused on theory. The shift from theory to a more practical curriculum would enhance entrepreneurial skills for the youth, hence combating the scourge of unemployment and poverty in the country.
It is further acknowledged that education is one the vital endeavours in the world that without it, there is no guarantee that the youth would have any guidance to survive in a very challenging and multi-faceted world.
In this globalized world where cultural dynamics of one country seem to consistently affect that of another, educations systems are in themselves not universal and unfortunately, “some are better than others”.
The latest challenge in Botswana’s education system for instance, “is nothing new, as the education system is collapsing before all of us and the nation is watching helplessly”.
Noticeably, the results have been declining for years now in a row, and without the slightest show that they will improve in the near future. The nation has been suffering from the negative effects of the past poor programmes which were not even properly implemented.
The paper laments that school performance for government-owned schools is disturbing, schools in major cities and towns perform better than those in rural and remote areas.
For example, St Joseph’s College tops the list at a 38 percent pass rate for 2014. The same school was on top again in 2013 at a somewhat similar pass rate. Shakawe senior Secondary School, in the far North West District, once again sits at the bottom of the ladder with a pass rate of just seven percent as was the case last year (2013).
Similarly, its pass rate has not improved in any significant way at all. Furthermore, “praised pass rates below 50 percent of schools like St Joseph’s College and others in the country are unacceptable in a country in which more than two-thirds of the annual budget goes to education.
“With the public investing so much in education, surely better returns on this investment are expected. What is most disturbing is that no serious measures have been taken to address the problem despite the avowed status of education as the engine of socioeconomic development. Thus the declining performance of the education system has far reaching implications for the country”.
Although education is the most potent vehicle for upward social mobility in this country, “this emerging narrative signifies tragedy, as rural schools are consistently underperforming in particular regions of the country”.
Botswana is a country already characterized “by gross income inequalities between rural and urban areas also known as the center-periphery thesis. The poor have pinned their hopes for a better life on their children performing well at school and ultimately landing jobs or other opportunities with a sustainable income.
“Painfully, these hopes are being ruined by the poor performance of government schools generally and the rural based schools in particular. The BGCSE results are crushing blow to the hopes and aspirations of a whole generation of young people”.
This unfolding narrative is scripted no doubt by the present education system and this might imply that the poor are being denied the opportunity to participate in, and benefit from, meaningfully rewarding economic activities. The result “is an ever-widening gap between the better off urban and the desperately poor rural populations”.
The research study further decries that the schools in the western and north-western parts of Botswana especially Shakawe Senior Secondary School are the ones that underperform, in contrary schools north-eastern and northern in the Kalanga areas are performing better than the western and north-western schools.
Drawing on the logic of education as a means of unlocking people’s potentialities, “it stands to reason that residents of these regions are marginalized economically relative to their counterparts in the eastern parts of the country where overall school performance is far much better”.
The research paper therefore argues that “it is urgent to ensure that this emerging trend does not wreak havoc in our country”, reiterating that “there is substantial body of evidence showing that the private schools have now become the default destinations for children of the poor, further sinking them into the manure and swamp of oppressive poverty”.
In Botswana, privately owned schools in comparison to those owned by the state are performing very well, for example, Maruapula, Westwood International and others. The education system has been found to be in paralysis and something drastic needs to be done.
“A change in strategy is needed. It is clear that grand systemic interventions are failing. It is about time the country focused on local, school-based reforms that will target areas of weakness in the schools for attention and intervention”, states research paper emphatically.
The research implores the country to understand that the educational crisis is not a simple matter of the education budget or budgetary constraints of running a well-functioning education system.
The cyclical crisis in education means needs to confront challenges in the country’s education system aggressively and systematically.
