An evaluation of policies and programmes related to children with disabilities in Botswana

Abstract

Globally, most children with disabilities are neglected by society. Research shows that the majority of the world's 450 million people with disabilities are found in developing countries (Sullivan and Knutson, 1998 and 2000). This study seeks to: (a) identify available programmes of education and policies that are aimed at helping children with disabilities in schools; (b) determine the nature of services that are available to disabled children in schools; and (c) determine some strategies that the government and society can use to help children with disabilities in Botswana schools. A qualitative, explorative and contextual research design was used for this research. Data were collected using a document analysis from the Revised National Policy of 1994, in which the Special Education Policy is set out; the Botswana Population Census of 1991; and the Botswana Centre for the Disabled News Letter of 1999. Researchers collected data from these documents by making detailed notes. The study found that there are too few schools, and inadequate facilities, for children with disabilities in Botswana.     

Study-service as a significant factor in career development

The purpose of this paper is to describe the role of the Botswana study-service scheme (Tirelo Setshaba) in the career development of its participants. Study-service is defined as community service used to educate those who participate in contrast to other service programmes where the main objective is to provide manpower e.g. by providing service to the community. First, the existing career development situation in Botswana for senior secondary school students is reviewed and findings from some recent research in this field in the country are presented. Second, the nature of the one year experience gained by Tirelo Setshaba participants is described including the uniqueness of Tirelo Setshaba as compared to other similar schemes in that service takes place before post-secondary education, but with other policies being similar to those developed for university students. Third, the paper presents a rationale for career development assistance for Tirelo Setshaba participants and describes career development material prepared for them. The nature of the scheme, with two or a maximum of four participants assigned to a village, has made it necessary to design a career service for clients who are so widely scattered that the often-used career talks, conventions or one-to-one counselling are impractical. Finally, the paper argues for a proper evaluation of Tirelo Setshaba's impact on career development as the conclusions drawn in the paper are based on limited observations.Senior Research Fellow, National Institute of Development Research and Documentation, University of Botswana. She has served for several years as planning officer with the Ministry of Education in Botswana and as a psychologist (career guidance) in Sweden.Tirelo Setshaba Adviser, Ministry of State President, Botswana. He has long experience from study-service schemes in a number of countries, inter alia Botswana, Nepal and Indonesia.     

Using adult education principles for HIV/AIDS awareness intervention strategies in Botswana

This paper reports on a mainly qualitative study into company strategies for HIV/AIDS information, education and communication (IEC) strategies in the Botswana workplace. The authors argue that HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention strategies in Botswana need a new approach. The research proposal hypothesized that IEC strategies need to take account of adult education theory that promotes the active involvement of learners in developing their own curriculum. It also proposed that an Africa‐centric gender perspective should be incorporated into future IEC materials. That is, the particular cultural position of women and their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS infection in Botswana needs to be theorized as an issue of power. Integrated with this issue is the argument that it is not always appropriate to try to persuade women to take the initiative in preventing infection when culturally they have no power to do so. The paper therefore critiques some of the adult education and feminist arguments for empowerment that do not take account of existing male power positions within the Botswana social framework. Using new educational material that derived from the research findings the authors argue for a dual strategy towards behavioural change; one that takes account of the current health crisis, but also one which uses a radical pedagogical approach that engages with ‘where people are at’.     

Constraints to UPE: More than a question of supply?

The traditional approach to universal primary education (UPE) in developing countries has emphasised supply factors of schooling systems, such as the construction of schools and teacher training facilities, revisions to curricula and improvements in teaching materials. No doubt all these factors have played an important part in encouraging the growth of enrolment ratios throughout the developing world during the past two decades. But the profile of absentees from school, and the disproportionate enrolment of boys and girls in school suggest that this approach is unlikely to achieve full UPE. This paper calls for consideration of demand factors which may prevent children from attending school. Focusing on the household as the relevant unit, it examines the costs incurred when a child attends school in the developing world, and the benefits to be gained from school attendance. The paper then goes on to consider the case of Botswana, where, within the context of the goal of UPE, the government is investing vast resources in the expansion and improvement of the primary school system. Yet substantial numbers of children, boys in particular, continue to be withheld from school. After an analysis of the demand factors which prevent children from attending school in rural Botswana, the paper concludes with a discussion of the additional policies the Botswana government might find necessary to employ in order to achieve full UPE.     

Access negotiation and curriculum change: Lessons from Botswana

This paper shares the author's fieldwork experiences gained on access negotiation during a one-year case study of the implementation of a new science curriculum in eight lower secondary schools in Botswana. The qualitative research strategy adopted was deemed appropriate as the study focused on what actually happened in the classroom and on seeking explanations to the transactions from the context and the 26 teachers who participated in the study. This paper considers the main outcomes and results of the fieldwork to be the educative experience of the entire research process and the fostering in the author of a reconceptualization of access negotiation within a developing country context. The implications of this paper for further research can be seen broadly in terms of the ethical concerns and research approaches that are to be observed, adopted, and implemented in working within the "stressed" or underprivileged teaching environments in developing nations.     

Adult education and the empowerment of civil society: the case of trade unions in Botswana

The paper examines the potential role of adult education in the empowerment of civil society in Botswana. It shows that adult education can be instrumental in the empowerment of trade unions as organs of civil society in a liberal democracy. It argues that the country's democratic tradition can be sustained by a strong civil society. The paper traces the history of trade unions in Botswana showing that the state has mostly weakened them through legislation. It is contended that individuals participate in trade unions as their mouthpiece when they are in trouble with capital. Most trade union members reported not being aware of adult education activities in Botswana. The paper explores some of the weaknesses of the unions and suggests how adult education provision from adult basic education to adult and continuing education at the university could help to redress the workers' problems. It concludes by mapping out some practical ways in which adult education could empower the unions in Botswana as it has done elsewhere.     

Child‐rearing practices and children's communicative interactions in a village in Botswana

Increasingly, research is indicating the need to consider language development in the particular cultural, socio‐economic and child‐rearing context in which it is occurring. The observations in this paper, conducted over a period of nine months while the first author lived with a family in a village in Botswana, highlight the need for a more thorough understanding of the ‘local’ child‐rearing practices and the nature of typically developing children's communicative interactions. Mothers' orientation towards interacting with their babies, as well as the interaction style with their young children, is described. Implications for further research are discussed.     

Teachers' perspectives on classroom practice in Botswana: Implications for pedagogical change

Attempts to improve the quality of education in Botswana have, inter alia, included an emphasis on a learner-centered pedagogy. Attempts at implementing this pedagogy have been made within the ambit of the technical rational model of curriculum development. The attempts, however, have produced inconclusive results, and these results have often been rationalized in technicist terms, e.g., as being due to lack of resources and poorly trained teachers. Overlooked in this technicist model are the teachers' perspectives on the innovation. Using the case-study approach within the rubrics of the qualitative research paradigm, this study sought to establish the perspectives of geography teachers in a senior secondary school in Botswana vis-a-vis the learnercentered pedagogy advocated in Education for Kagisano ( Social Harmony ), a report produced by the 1977 Commission on Education. The findings indicated that teachers' classroom practices were influenced by many factors other than technical ones: these included the teachers' assumptions about the nature of knowledge and the ways it ought to be transmitted, their perceptions of students, and the goal of schooling. It also emerged that their assumptions were incongruent with the basic tenets of the learner-centered pedagogy. The findings, then, are an indictment of the technical rational model of change implementation applied in Botswana. They indicate that disregarding what teachers know and think about their taken-for-granted classroom practices when effecting change can lead to disappointing results.     

Comparing opportunity to learn and student achievement gains in southern African primary schools: A new approach

A popular explanation for low student achievement in many developing countries’ primary schools is that students have relatively little opportunity to learn (OTL) the skills needed for academic success. However logical this explanation may be, surprisingly little empirical evidence has been presented to support it. In this paper we address this gap by estimating the effect of OTL on students’ academic performance using rich data we gathered on the teaching process in a large number of South African and Botswana Grade 6 classrooms. We use an innovative classroom fixed effects approach to estimate the impact of OTL on students’ mathematics achievement gains. We found statistically significant but very different results for our South Africa and Botswana samples. The discussion of those results in the context of differences in the two school systems gives us insights into the importance and limits of OTL as an explainer of student learning in low achievement schools.     

Alternative Ways of Financing Tertiary Education in Botswana

In developing countries, education is regarded as a public good that must be publicly provided. Due to the perceived positive correlation between education and development in development-hungry Africa, the education sector has, over the years, been receiving very generous budgetary allocations. Today, however, particularly post-2008, there are moves to re-define education as a private good, consequently, not deserving of public provision. As a result, there are persistent calls for alternative ways of providing education, particularly at tertiary levels. Similarly, in Botswana, there are developments that unmistakably suggest that the time is ripe for alternative ways of providing tertiary education, mainly, cost-sharing. To be sure, the Ministry of Education and Skills Development drastically cut sponsorships during the 2016/17 academic year. The general lesson from the Botswana case is that there is a need to continually interrogate the architecture of public expenditure. If problems are discovered, the architecture must be promptly reconfigured.     

Voices of the voiceless: Inclusion of learners with special education needs in Botswana primary schools

A review of educational policies and procedures in Botswana reveals that inclusion of learners with special educational needs (SENs) in regular classrooms is currently the main policy and school practice. However, there are variations in the way inclusion is being practiced and implemented throughout the country. The purpose of this present study was to examine the experiences of inclusion by learners with SENs in Botswana’s primary schools. Using a qualitative approach, 36 learners with SENs as well as 36 learners without SENs were engaged in twelve focus group discussions from six primary schools. Six focus group were for learners with SENs and the other six were for learners without SENs. Objectives of these focus group interviews were to gather day-to-day experiences of learners in general education classrooms since they were the recipients and participants of an inclusive practice. The findings revealed that although, learners with SENs had positive experiences about inclusion, they equally faced barriers in accessing curriculum. Implications of the findings are discussed in order to promote wider participation for learners with SENs in Botswana primary schools.     

非公企业转变发展方式的资金困难及其缓解研究

资金困难在非公企业加快转变发展方式的过程中十分突出,主要表现为资金供求的缺口巨大、流动资金链的绷紧程度高、融资通道狭窄和成本居高不下、小微企业资金困难程度更加严重等。非公企业转变发展方式中资金困难的原因十分复杂,既有非公企业造血功能退化等自身存在的不足,也有转变发展方式对资金需求的快速增加的客观原因,以及银行体系对非公企业的资金支持不力和民间借贷发展存在瓶颈等制度安排问题。解决非公企业转变发展方式的资金困难,要在完善对非公企业金融支持的法律法规基础上,发挥政策的扶持与引导作用,鼓励企业增加造血功能,支持金融机构进行金融创新,合理引导和规范民间金融借贷,打造和完善全省性融资供应链。     

Integrating guidance,counselling, and counsellor education in Botswana: A consultation model

This paper reflects the work of the authors as consultants to the Ministry of Education and the University of Botswana on a project sponsored by the USAID. The mission of the consultants was to assist the educational leaders of the country of Botswana, Africa, in determining the next major step in developing country-wide guidance and counselling services in responding to significant boundary shifts, both economically and intellectually. The paper discusses background of Education and Guidance in Botswana along with recommendations to our respective agencies. We further review the procedure used to reach our conclusions, impediments to implementation, and recommendations for future consultancies.     

Children's Participation in Development for School Health

This paper presents a rationale for children's participation and argues that their capacity for participation is determined not only by age and by stage of development but also by such factors as gender, religion, ethnicity, wealth and disability. It critically reviews a range of models to measure children's participation and uses one of these models to analyse the level of participation illustrated in case studies of school health in Nepal, Zambia and Botswana. Finally, it identifies strategies for increasing the level of children's participation through developing health-promoting schools. It concludes that among the main barriers to children's participation are the attitudes of adults who have yet to fully realise the value of children's participation and to develop the skills needed to work with them as partners for health.     

A Perspective on the Role of Special Education Research in Botswana

This article describes the governmental and research culture contexts for educational research in Botswana. Research is seen to play an important role in the development of educational policies for the country. The limited resources that can be devoted to research endeavors in a small, developing country like this, however, affect the implementation of such policies. This point is developed in several examples regarding special education and other services for children and adults with disabilities in Botswana.     

Language identity and multicultural diversity in Botswana

This study explored the common wisdom that sees Botswana as inherently ethnically homogenous. It used the existing Afrobarometer survey data drawn from Round 1 (1999), Round 2 (2003), Round 3 (2005) and Round 4 (2008). The findings of this study revealed that when using language spoken mostly at home, common wisdom is confirmed. However, it is disconfirmed when using disaggregated home language. This is more apparent when language is broken down according to district and rural-urban location. The implications of this study are that multicultural and linguistic diversity of Botswana compels us to view every group as heterogeneously unique and important in its own ways. While Botswana is generally viewed as a shining example of a successful African democracy, its policies towards language, especially within the education system, leave much to be desired. The education system should move beyond the homogenous-thinking doctrine and embrace multicultural diversity.     

Computers in Reception Schools—A Case of Gaborone,Botswana

Computers are changing young children’s world in profound ways. Research shows that when computer technology is used appropriately in early years of life, it enhances virtually every aspect of development, i.e., cognitive, social, emotional, language and fine motor skills. Thus a very critical issue in today’s technologically advanced world is whether we in Botswana use computer technology for young children, and if so how do we use it. Hence the present study was conducted in the reception schools of Gaborone, Capital of Botswana. Out of 12 reception schools of Gaborone, data could be collected from nine schools only. The outcome of the study led to a few recommendations.     

Training for Service in Developing Countries

In June 1979, the Swedish Government appointed a Commission of Inquiry to look into the total training requirements for Swedish personnel in contact with the developing countries. This action was taken against a background of increased Swedish involvement in the development countries, in aid, industry and a large number of voluntary organisations, and in the light of the demands made on Swedes serving in developing countries due to living and working in an alien environment.

The Commission commenced its work in September 1979* and worked closely with a reference group consisting of representatives drawn from the Swedish administration, the business world, the missionary societies and the trade union movement. This article summarises those parts of the Commission's report which are relevant to the theme of this issue.