EU welcomes inclusion of ethnic minorities in education

BABOKI KAYAWE
Staff Writer | Saturday May 25, 2013 00:00

Belpaire applauded the inclusion of needs of these groups saying that, 'having no idea what the teacher is saying, is not conducive to improved learning outcomes'. He also proposed for an increment of the number of teachers who speak the 'ethnic minority' language.  Belpaire hoped that this measure would be put in place one day. The EU assisted financially towards the development of this policy.  However, the policy itself does not dwell much on the issue of mother tongue or 'ethnic language', especially at lower primary level.

In an interview with deputy permanent secretary, support services in the education and skills development ministry, Kgopotso Ramoroka, The Monitor learnt that the government has no intentions of teaching in mother tongue at lower primary level.Rather, they have realigned the breakthrough programme to give teachers efficacy in teaching pupils from predominantly non-Setswana speaking communities. 'We have not started offering it in the mother tongue, what has been done is that those teachers who could not teach breakthrough well among non- Setswana speaking communities have been re-skilled to achieve that,' he said. 

Asked why government took long to implement this policy, Ramoroka said the development of the implementation took long to be developed. The policy was recommended in 1994. As a result, 17 years down the line the government approved and started its implementation. The policy was motivated by the World Declaration on Education for All, which observed that a significant number of children and youth continued to be outside the education system. The Salamanca Declaration of 1994, which led to the adoption of the Revised National Policy on Education, further necessitated this policy. 

'The policy was approved and implemented in 2011, but some aspects of it have been in place earlier than that,' Ramoroka said, adding that, 'we thought it was important to officially launch its implementation so that people can know that it is working'. Education Assistant Minister Patrick Masimolole said the policy was driven by teacher capacity building, lifelong learning, care and support systems and partnerships with all stakeholders.'I have no doubt that this policy will greatly impact not only on our lives as Batswana, but will also greatly inform the envisaged review of the Revised National Policy on Education 1994 as well as any other policy and/or legislative reviews,' he said.