By Veronica Makwinja | for Moakanyi Magazine

To grow the Botswana economy, there must be a deliberate reengineering and reinvesting into the Education of children that a productive and enterprising generation is raised for the future of the economy.

For efficiency in education and all related industries, the latest thinking must be infused, and recent thoughtful contributions have come from academics such as Veronica Makwinja of Botho University, Botswana. Veronica Makwinja has been an educator in both high schools and tertiary institutions for a period of over 30 years.

In 2017, Veronica Makwinja conducted a study on education and published a paper in the Journal of International Education Research – December 2017, published by The Clute Institute.

The following are the conclusive highlights from her research;

Vocational education must be encouraged and taught from the early ages; at pre-school or early childhood classes.

The former education system advocated the 3Rs more at the expense of vocational skills.

Children who excel in vocational education could be allowed to pursue their interest and passion unlike where a child progresses through the education system only when they have passed academic subjects. The government could set up vocational wings in the school where children specialize in various trades that could become their profession in the future. For example, if a child excels in music they should be trained well in music to become a professional musician.

The reason for the above is that the government is the sole employer of graduates from tertiary institutions.

Now there are no vacancies left and a large number of graduates are walking the streets unemployed.

This is one of the worst unemployment crises in the country with unemployed graduates beginning to express their dissatisfaction and demonstrating against their plight.

Reforming and transforming education is long overdue in Botswana. The Botswana government must review its education system whether it is suitable for a Motswana child whose basic needs are still no met.

There is talk internationally about globalization and internationalization of education and one wonders how appropriate this trend is for a country young as Botswana that is unable to globalize within its boundaries, so how it could do so internationally. Education is a human right and all children must access it fully with all the necessary provisions to enable them to succeed in their learning.

The researcher advocates a more transformations system of teaching Batswana children to enable them to perform to the expected standards through a thorough evaluation and analysis of the learning barriers faced by communities in Botswana.

There are great inequalities in the Botswana society such as poverty, lack of proper care of the orphans, lack of learning facilities in almost all schools, lack of access to basic needs and many others which affect the children’s learning. These challenges require commitment of all stakeholders involved with educating children to find better ways of directly and properly using working strategies to solve them. They do not require sitting in meetings and setting unattainable goals.

Some communities in the country suffer the above and due to their children are unable to grasp the general concepts that today’s curriculum offer in Botswana. This calls for dialogue with communities on the type of education suitable for their children.

The generic curriculum could be used as a stepping-stone to incorporate concepts that make sense to those particular communities. For example, Basarwa children perform poorly in the national examinations because concepts dealt with in the curriculum are unfamiliar to them. For example, their books depict pictures of aero planes, rivers, trains, and hills features that the children have never seen. Unfortunately, there are no computers for research let alone electricity.

The curriculum needs to be more cultural, and context sensitive, which is still a challenge for the country.