Teachers welcome mother-tongue instruction

Botswana will start teaching pupils from preprimary to Standard two in their own languages in the next two-months, President Mokgweetsi Masisi announced this week.

The languages to be used in schools are Afrikaans, Sekgalagadi, Shona, Sembukushu, Seyei, Seherero and sign language amongst others.

Masisi said this will be done to ensure that no child is left behind in education.

“The agreed orthography and dominance in the regions where the languages were spoken, were some of the criteria used for their selection,” Masisi said. Reacting to the announcement, Botswana Teachers Union (BTU) Vice President Primary Bakang Bagwasi said they welcome the development by government. However, he advised that government should be ready to fairly transfer willing educators to areas they are comfortable working at, stating that it will be unfair on teachers who have all along been working in rural areas. “We do not want instances where everything will be paused because teachers are not happy with transfers,” he said. He said they have heard that the employer has already begun working on staff transfers that will be determined by knowledge of certain languages by teachers, and that it will all be systems go by the start of the year. Bagwasi noted that government should also think hard about ensuring that students are not only taught in mother tongue languages but the other languages being taught in school.

Botswana Sectors of Educators Trade Union (BOSETU) spokesperson Oreeditse Nyatso said they have long told government that lower classes should be taught in languages that children can easily understand.

“The idea is our brainchild,” he said, adding that it did not make sense for a six-year old Standard one pupil whose parents never speak English or Setswana at home to understand what was being said in schools. “Things will be much easier for them because teachers will interpret for them and they will easily understand what they are being taught. “We know it will not be easy to get staff but for progress sake, government can go ahead and implement it and take it from there,” he said.