PSLE to examine four subjects
Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) will with effect from next year; examine students on only four subjects in order to promote Science and Technology in the country. Assistant Minister of Tertiary Education, Research and Technology, Moiseraele Goya revealed at the BUIST Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) festival and Research and Innovation symposium. He emphasized that it is important for Botswana to train experts in STEM programmes in order for the country to become globally competitive. He is of the view that this transformation backs up the national agenda of becoming knowledge-based economy, as students would be tested only on Mathematics and Science, which are the core subjects of STEM as well as English, and Setswana, which are the country’s official languages. “For a long time, we have been discussing the examinable subjects, and now we have finally made it,” said Goya. Goya expects change in the coming years regarding STEM subjects. He added that some countries have always been specializing on these and for Botswana to finally reach such a milestone is an achievement. “They say you cannot teach an old dog some new tricks therefore we are hopeful that this new examination would elevate our country in terms of STEM because students would have started specializing from an early stage,” he said.