Project Bula Buka to be implemented countrywide
This year, thousands of students who have previously been discarded by the education system after JCE will now have an opportunity for further training following the launch of the project Bula Buka.
Over the years, thousands of learners dropped out of the education system because they could not transition to senior secondary schools and to tertiary education.
Project Bula Buka is aimed at providing educational access, skills training and character building to out-of-school JC leavers and remediation to BGCSE leavers, granting them a second chance to return to school and reclaim their future.
Minister of Child Welfare and Basic Education, Nono Mokoka-Kgafela, says on average, the transition rate from Junior Secondary School to Senior Secondary School is 56 per cent, leaving aside 44 per cent or 19 800 of learners.
Statistics further indicate that transition rates for Form Four for the past four years stand at 110 679 learners from 2019 to 2024.
“These are children who continually failed to get access to educational opportunities largely due to limited schooling places, especially at Senior Schools,” she said, adding that the transition rate of learners from Junior to Senior Secondary Schools is relatively low and requires immediate attention.
Minister Mokoka-Kgafela said a high number of learners from primary to tertiary education levels are not able to transition to the next level of education. Further, every year, close to 100,000 school-going children are thrown into the streets.
“This project is aligned to the government’s commitment to ‘mop up the streets’, meaning we do not want to see our children roaming the streets,” the minister said.
“We have vowed to introduce civic education curriculum at all levels to ensure that the educational system also imparts desirable values among the citizens such that they become patriotic, accountable, selfless and responsible leaders who are committed to an inclusive, equitable society for all.”
Among the interventions is the introduction of reforms such as STEAM-driven education.
Commentators, including University of Botswana Professor Happy Siphambe, have raised concern over the high statistics of youth not in employment, not in education, not in training, estimated at 41.3 per cent.
Project Bula Buka is viewed as a stopgap measure that will eventually lead to the government’s plan of expanding access to senior secondary school to reach 100 per cent transition in five years.
“In the near future, children will no longer have to drop out of Junior Certificate.”
In addition, Minister Mokoka-Kgafela says the government is fully committed to assisting and empowering the out-of-school youth and increasing their prospects of employment and or self-employment.
She believes that this will invariably assist in reducing poverty and related social ills in pursuit of total eradication of poverty by 2036.
“It is through the ‘Bula-Buka’ project and other empowerment programmes that the Government seeks to ensure that the two key national priorities of equitable quality education and promoting lifelong opportunities are achieved.”
Project Bula Buka is highlighted as one of the key Targeted Support Programmes cited in the Botswana Economic Transformation Plan (BETP).
It is budgeted for in the government’s financial implementation plan for the years 2025/26, 2026/27 and 2027/28.
In the National Development Plan (NDP)12, Strategies 43-44 are about promoting inclusive education. According to the Minister, this requires a comprehensive approach that combines adequate resourcing, effective policy implementation, and a commitment to ensuring equal access for all learners.
Reasonable progress has been made since the Cabinet's approval of the implementation of this project. Several stakeholders, including UNICEF and the World Bank, have since been identified, and more may be identified for the smooth implementation of this project.
The project will be implemented in three phases: with the first phase beginning towards the end of the current financial year, the second phase at the beginning of 2027 and the last Phase in 2028.
While the Minister admits that this will start as a pilot project, she said that eventually the project is meant to cover the whole country.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Child Welfare and Basic Education, Mmamiki Kamanakao, added at the launch of the project that it encompasses career and occupational guidance, and offers character building skills.
Through the programme, Kamanakao said they would embark on student profiling to find out students’ strengths and weaknesses with a view to channelling them to appropriate vocations.
The 2025 Junior Certificate Examinations results are expected to be released in mid-January, according to the Botswana Examinations Council (BEC).