(COMMENT)
The Botswana Examinations Council (BEC) has released the 2024 Junior Certificate Examination (JCE) results and not for a good reading.
The results are almost the same as those of previous years where a significant number of students fail to make it to high school because they have not obtained the necessary grades.
According to BEC there’s a slight improvement from last year – just 3.8 percent. This is nothing to write home about as from a total of 45 284 candidates who sat for their examination over 11 000 of them are not guaranteed a clear path to senior secondary school.
These are young people condemned to the world of unemployment and a bleak future. It is the same old story. Each year the results are released, they seem to be worse than the previous ones or if there is an improvement it is so insignificant.
Our education system is in a very bad state. And it has been in such a state for many years now. Our students perform badly at primary, junior and higher education final examinations.
It is up to the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) government to introduce key reforms to transform our education system.
The UDC promised in its Manifesto that it would overhaul the current education system and introduce and institutionalise STEAM-based education and human resource development system within a year.
The party promised to provide funding for the establishment of state-of- the-art laboratories, libraries and computer facilities to improve STEM skills and knowledge.
The UDC also promised to implement an accelerated infrastructural project to build and maintain school buildings including classrooms, laboratories, libraries and information technology (IT) service centres, student hostels, staff houses and requisite infrastructure and facilities.
President Boko’s party also made a vow to review the current policy, programmes and facilities on vocational training and align them with the requirements of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the demand for skills in the market.
The party also promised to establish a National Research and Development Fund, which will be accessible to all accredited tertiary academic institutions to address the scientific and technological needs of the country as well as STEAM Education programmes.
Time is of the essence, the UDC needs to act now and implement some of these promises. It is almost 100 days of the UDC rule, but there is little to show in terms of policy direction in the education system.
At this pace the system, just like the previous one, will continue to churn out secondary school failures. In a few months Form 5s will be writing their examinations and nothing out of the ordinary is expected in terms of their results compared to the previous years.
With no systems or institutions in place to absorb students who are not academically gifted this will add to the already growing number of unemployed young people.
The UDC should quickly work on the promises it made especially on vocational training. It is a known fact that the previous Botswana Democratic Party administration did not prioritise vocational education.
The UDC must prioritise vocational education as its importance cannot be overstated.
The results are almost the same as those of previous years where a significant number of students fail to make it to high school because they have not obtained the necessary grades.
According to BEC there’s a slight improvement from last year – just 3.8 percent. This is nothing to write home about as from a total of 45 284 candidates who sat for their examination over 11 000 of them are not guaranteed a clear path to senior secondary school.
These are young people condemned to the world of unemployment and a bleak future. It is the same old story. Each year the results are released, they seem to be worse than the previous ones or if there is an improvement it is so insignificant.
Our education system is in a very bad state. And it has been in such a state for many years now. Our students perform badly at primary, junior and higher education final examinations.
It is up to the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) government to introduce key reforms to transform our education system.
The UDC promised in its Manifesto that it would overhaul the current education system and introduce and institutionalise STEAM-based education and human resource development system within a year.
The party promised to provide funding for the establishment of state-of- the-art laboratories, libraries and computer facilities to improve STEM skills and knowledge.
The UDC also promised to implement an accelerated infrastructural project to build and maintain school buildings including classrooms, laboratories, libraries and information technology (IT) service centres, student hostels, staff houses and requisite infrastructure and facilities.
President Boko’s party also made a vow to review the current policy, programmes and facilities on vocational training and align them with the requirements of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the demand for skills in the market.
The party also promised to establish a National Research and Development Fund, which will be accessible to all accredited tertiary academic institutions to address the scientific and technological needs of the country as well as STEAM Education programmes.
Time is of the essence, the UDC needs to act now and implement some of these promises. It is almost 100 days of the UDC rule, but there is little to show in terms of policy direction in the education system.
At this pace the system, just like the previous one, will continue to churn out secondary school failures. In a few months Form 5s will be writing their examinations and nothing out of the ordinary is expected in terms of their results compared to the previous years.
With no systems or institutions in place to absorb students who are not academically gifted this will add to the already growing number of unemployed young people.
The UDC should quickly work on the promises it made especially on vocational training. It is a known fact that the previous Botswana Democratic Party administration did not prioritise vocational education.
The UDC must prioritise vocational education as its importance cannot be overstated.
