Botswana behind in ECD programmes
Baboki Kayawe | Wednesday December 3, 2014 11:50
Former Vice President Ponatshego Kedikilwe and Assistant Minister of Education, Moiseraela Goya, who were officiating in their respective capacities, made the observation.
Kedikilwe said at the moment only about 22 percent of children under the age of six were accessing formal pre-primary education in Botswana.
He observed that the country was ranked among countries that have low numbers of children who access ECD programmes and that it was against high demand for the services as ECD access was thwarted by the exuberant prices charged by private sector providers.
Said Kedikilwe: “Research has significantly justified that quality early childhood learning fertilises ground for future learning.
“ECD moulds and triggers learners to develop an inherent potential and culture of lifelong learning, as envisaged by the contemporary global human capital development profile demand,” he noted.
A study conducted by the Kedikilwe Commission in 1993 showed that 90 percent of Batswana approved pre-school, but observed it was expensive.
In that regard, Kedikilwe added that the current statistics on the uptake of ECD were counter-productive because children who did not access it missed out on its numerous benefits. Kedikilwe further noted that the expansion of ECD programmes to all children in the country would go a long way in reducing the likelihood of children’s exposure to inadequate child care arrangements that put their wellbeing at risk.
“As long as the vast majority of our children are excluded from ECD programmes, as a country, we will continue to have most children from poor and low income families lagging behind in terms of various aspects of their development,” Kedikilwe warned.
ECD services are said to play a key role in breaking the inter-generational cycle of multiple disadvantages such as chronic under-nutrition, poor health, gender discrimination, as well as readying children for basic education and latter life.
For his part assistant education minister, Goya urged participants and providers of ECD to apply their minds and come up with comprehensive resolutions to improve the lives of children eligible for ECD programmes.
“The goal of the ministry is to have a fully-fledged two year pre-primary education in the next five years,” he said. He added that the pilot programme that saw 115 schools participating in reception classes has shown that there was much for stakeholders to learn about what it takes to create a successful ECD programme for Batswana children.
“We still need to learn how the national ECD model needs to be framed and also how partners can be brought together to maximise the impact of limited government resources,” Goya said, noting that government did not provide free pre-primary education as yet.
So far the country has established a multi-sectorial Reference Committee on early childhood education, comprising of representatives from Ministries of Education, Health, Local Government and Rural Development among others.
This committee, according to Goya, has since produced the National Day Care Centre Policy whose purpose is to provide guidance in ‘management, protection and Education for Children of ages two-and-half to six years’.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Botswana Representative Vidhya Ganesh said investing in early childhood development was one of the most critical and cost-effective ways to improve life-long health, education and productivity. She reiterated ECD benefits alluded to by Kedikilwe earlier.
“Children who take part in early learning activities have healthy child-caregiver bonds and those that attend quality preschool programmes are more likely to stay in school over the long run, have better health and nutritional outcomes throughout their lifetimes and become productive members of society,” she said.