Issues, Dilemmas and Prospects on the State Provision of Education to Traditional Hunter-Gatherer Societies of Botswana

Abstract

Botswana has embraced the idea of universal provision of basic education to all of its young citizens on the basis of right. This has put a tremendous pressure on the education sector to improve access to schooling. As a result, over one hundred and fifty additional schools built during the period between 1985 and 1995 as part of this effort. However, studies conducted in the latter part of the 1980's and the National Commission on Education point out the fact that about 17% of school going children remain outside school. These children reported as missing from school are the children of the country's Remote Area Dweller (RAD) communities most of whom are the Basarwa, the indigenous minority ethnic hunter-gatherer social groups in Botswana. Basarwa comprise a distinct and heterogeneous socio-cultural group whose economic lifestyle and culture differ from that of the dominant Tswana groups. This socio-cultural dislocation also comes into surface in the classroom and is one of the main causes of Basarwa children's continued stay away from the classroom. The classroom in this case becomes an arena of intercultural conflicts. These conflicts inter alia take the form of exclusion of language, traditions and cultural world-view of the children of minorities in the pedagogic process. Teachers also transport into the classroom a baggage of cultural and personal attitudes which is not supportive to the learning of these children. The study suggests a community based teacher induction process and a teaching approach which will attempt to accommodate both the learners language and cultural world-view in the classroom. This approach follows the empowerment perspectives to teaching and learning where parents have some power and control on what their children learn and the culture, language and experiences of children are central to the classroom teaching and learning process. What takes place in the classroom then becomes a culturally mediated process.