They also believe that if it was not due to opposition pressure, some of the things could not have been done.
According to the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) secretary-general Goretetse Kekgonegile, his party has been preaching the issue of the teaching of mother tongues in schools for years.
“The BCP has been very consistent about the matter and at first people were criticising us thinking that it is not practicable until some of them realised the need to do it. For us, we were looking at the importance of the mother tongue language and also the period that a child takes to get used to or get the meaning of languages such as Setswana and English.
That on its own was one of the contributing factors to students’ performance,” Kekgonegile said.
On Monday, when giving the State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Mokgweetsi Masisi said, “to ensure that no child is left behind in education, the government has since approved the languages policy of 2022, which will be used for basic teaching from pre-primary to Standard 2. This policy will be introduced in the following languages, from January 2023: Sheyeyi; Thimbukushu, Naro; Nama, Afrikaans, Khwedam; IsiNdebele, OtjiHerero/OtjiMbanderu, Shekgalagari, Ikalanga, ChiShona, Chiikuhane, and Sign language.”
He said the agreed orthography and dominance in the regions where the languages are spoken, were some of the criteria used for their selection. On the issue of constitutional review, Kekgonegile said it is the opposition block which had been demanding it even during former president Ian Khama’s time and they are happy that it had been done though certain procedures were not followed.
When giving the nation an update on the review, Masisi said: “The Commission was able to gather the views of Batswana on the strengths and weaknesses of the Constitution as well as register their concerns and proposals for its amendment. I am happy to inform you that the Commission submitted its Report on 29th September 2022.”
He said they are waiting for its report to be made public so that everyone could have it and check if indeed it is what they said or not. The BCP leader said as the opposition block, they put pressure on the government after it decided to stop Ipelegeng and asked for its continuation and it was done.
He said they also spoke in one voice for the opening of BCL, which was also taken into consideration and also an increase in beef prices together with the Meat Regulatory Act.
He said they also advocated for the Sehithwa-Mohembo road, which the government had also taken into consideration.
In 2019, the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) president Duma Boko when he was responding to SONA, said technology changes lives but not enough budget has been allocated to make Botswana a technological hub. He said there is need for a high-speed internet and they will give school students laptops or notepads to match their peers in other countries as well as improve working conditions.
However, Masisi informed the nation that, a three-phased School digitalisation plan with the integration of ICT in teaching and learning has commenced. Phase 1 of the plan focuses on the building of infrastructure, platforms and capacity building.
“Phase II of the project will target the provision of ICT devices to Junior Secondary School teachers and learners on an individual basis. The final Phase will provide teachers and learners in upper primary with ICT devices,” he said.
