UB Don defends ministry's decision

Professor Richard Tabulawa, Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Botswana, told The Monitor that the decision makes sense if one takes into consideration that the government has, in the National Development Plan (NDP) 10, made a commitment to provide universal access to 12 years of basic education to all citizens.

Taken in this context, Tabulawa said this means that at some point all students will have to proceed to Form Five.Regarding this year's class, he said it was a matter of government deciding between allowing the students to proceed or being prepared to have the students repeat their junior certificate education. Tabulawa said what the government now needs to work on is getting appropriate quality measures in place so that when students proceed to senior secondary education they have met the standards required.