Richard Tabulawa

Education reform in Botswana: reflections on policy contradictions and paradoxes

Literature on globalisation claims that changed global patterns of production and industrial organisation have intensified international economic competition, prompting nations globally to restructure their education systems in an attempt to position themselves favourably in an increasingly competitive economic environment. This is an environment that now requires a new kind of worker, what Castells terms the self‐programmable worker. This has put education under pressure to produce the learner‐equivalent of the self‐programmable worker. This self‐programmable learner is characterised by such psychosocial traits as independence of thought, innovativeness, creativity and flexibility. Botswanas Revised National Policy on Education (RNPE) of 1994 represents the countrys response to globalisation. It purports to produce the self‐programmable learner for an economy undergoing rapid transformation. In this paper I take a critical view of the policys intent. By analysing two of its central constructs (pre‐vocational preparation strategy and the behaviourist model adopted in the review of the curriculum), upon which the production of the self‐programmable learner hinges, I conclude that it is unlikely that the preferred learner would be produced. The two constructs are identified as paradoxes in that their effects are most likely to be the opposite of what is intended.

AIDS and Related Issues: the views of junior secondary teachers in Botswana

Summary Two hundred and four teachers responded to a questionnaire which sought information on their support, or not, for the teaching of AIDS‐related topics in schools, the isolation of AIDS‐infected students from schools, and their preference for three AIDS prevention messages as prepared by the Botswana Ministry of Health. Results indicated that the vast majority of the teachers favoured the teaching of AIDS‐related topics to students and the use of condoms while all of them frowned at the isolation of AIDS‐infected students from schools. It was concluded that the curriculum developers should help design a curriculum relevant to the teaching of AIDS and the need for parents and other members of society to ensure an epidemic‐free environment.

The State, Markets and Higher Education Reform in Botswana.

Market forces are being introduced in public spheres such as higher education and public health, which hitherto were closed to such forces. Ironically, it is the state that is responsible for this process of marketisation. Some see this state action as leading to a growing influence of the state in public policy while others see an attenuation of its role. Critiquing this market–state incompatibility thesis from a geo-spatial perspective on globalisation, this paper calls for an articulation of state–market relations that emphasises their interpenetration. Using Botswana as a case study, the paper argues that although on-going tertiary education reforms in the country are characterised by the states promotion of market forces this does not mean that the state is retreating, leaving the sub-sector to the vagaries of the market. Contrarily, the state is employing marketisation to reform the sub-sector so that it is responsive to labour and skills demands of an economy aspiring to be knowledge-based.

University of Botswana: A National University in Decline?

The University of Botswana (UB) was established by government in 1982 as a national university. Its historically dominant role within the country’s tertiary education sector and its significance in national life make it Botswana’s flaship university. While its historical evolution is fairly well documented, the same cannot be said about its contribution to the nation’s well-being. This chapter addresses this concern by examining UB’s contributions to research, capacity building, and policy development and by exploring how it has influenced the development of the higher education sector in Botswana. The study’s methodology was primarily a desk review of policy documents, historical records and annual reports produced abundantly by the government and the university itself.