'Many Pre-School Teachers Not Qualified'

Onalenna Kelebeile | Monday November 19, 2018 13:21

 

Principal education officer in Masunga Sub Region, Esther Nare explained to preschool teachers that it is a prerequisite to be accredited before going into class.

She said all the teachers have to submit their credentials to the regional education office where they are scrutinised and cleared with Botswana Qualifications Authority after establishing that they were trained by recognised institutions.

Those who do not meet the requirements are vetted out while the qualifying ones are granted a permission to teach. This is renewed every year. A roll call conducted during the workshop revealed that majority did not go through that process. Nare said it is illegal as no teacher is allowed to enter a classroom without a permission to teach and wondered how they were going to achieve their goals of producing primary school ready pupils if they are not fully qualified.

She said the majority of government pre-school teachers are early childhood diploma holders with a permission to teach while those in the private sector only have certificates mostly from BOCODOL.

She said the curriculum seeks to integrate early childhood in all learning centres to ensure that pupils are holistically developed and prepare a smooth transition to primary education. She indicated that some private preschools have a challenge to rollout the curriculum because of competition from those by government.

“There is a perceived threat that government wants to take over their businesses, but the curriculum targets the vulnerable, orphans and those whose parents cannot afford to pay school fees to ensure that they also access pre-school programme,” Nare said.

“Government enrolls those who are aged between four and five years, therefore private centres should target those below this age and should not feel threatened but provide quality service and thrive to surpass that offered by government.”

She said the curriculum is easy for teachers to interpret, but they need to work on methodology to come up with child-centred approaches.  “It has to be fully implemented and monitored. The workshop seeks to emphasise the implementation concept and content and to ensure that teachers understand its components and teaches them how to do the scheme of work, lesson plans and presentation,” she said. Nare said she wished private preschools could stop competition and understand their mandate of developing a child who is ready for primary education.

Principal education officer in Selebi-Phikwe region, Cosmos Chabata highlighted that they have a serious challenge of inspecting all the 28 preschools for compliance.  He said they are supposed to fully carryout inspections even in private preschools to ascertain teachers’ competency and provide technical assistance as the Ministry of Education.

He said early childhood education was recommended by the Kedikilwe Commission of 1994 and councils were given the mandate to implement and it took long.  He was however happy that in Selebi-Phikwe almost all primary schools now have fully furnished early childhood facilities.  “The only challenge I have noted is lack of play materials for the children and the little materials supplied are not fully utilised by teachers.”  Chabata added that some schools are eager to roll out more early childhood classes, but are limited by council’s resources.

Council officials also warned that failure to comply would lead to serious actions on non-compliant centres. They were advised to acquaint themselves with the policy that is also enshrined in the Children’s Act that lobbies for everything to the done in the best interest of the child.