Department of Non-formal Education Chief Education Officer Nnakgolo Tau told a two-day workshop on Gender and Ageing on Monday that the educational needs of senior citizens are varied.
Tau pointed out that baseline research is necessary to assist educationists in their endeavour to meet the needs of old people. He emphasised the need to establish a national centre for old people like the one that has been set up for the youth. He called on relevant stakeholders to revive the Reading Association of Botswana and make the institution more accessible to senior citizens.
“We need to re-train teachers so that they become conversant with the literacy needs of senior citizens. These people have a lot of historical knowledge about our society and there is every need to ensure that their views are incorporated into the socio-cultural, economic and political programmes and policies meant to serve Batswana.
“The problem of educational needs of the elderly is one of staggering dimensions and the little that educational programmes are attempting to provide only scratch the surface of a mammoth need,” Tau said.
He added in an interview that the government has put in place the right instruments to serve the interests of old people but there is need for a broad-based initiative whose programme will comprehensively incorporate the concerns of the elderly into the mainstream of national affairs.
“For a start, we could group old people together during a forum like this one and set up a task force that will represent the diverse views and concerns of old people across the country. As a government department, we can make follow-ups on the activities of the taskforce and ensure that the groups are functional,” he said.
Meanwhile, Gender Policy and Programme Committee (UB) chairperson Lilybert Machacha has called for the involvement of old people in development activities.
He urged the relevant stakeholders to institute a programme designed to facilitate a smooth collection of data from selected sites about the status of senior citizens in the country.
“We should involve older people in developing activities. Society should promote awareness of the rights of senior members of our country. There is need to collect data from selected sites by making visits to such places. This can also involve carrying out a field research by interviewing the elders,” she added.
Machacha called for African institutions to adopt strategies that are developed within the African context and tailored to fully benefit the interest of Africans. She said there was no need to imitate Western culture and policies as they are very different although they may be related to the needs of Africa.
