The Education System in Botswana

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Chapter 2 Context of the Study

Introduction

The Tertiary Education Policy for Botswana instituted in 2008 includes quality and relevance of tertiary education as critical in assisting the country to realise the transition from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy. For the tertiary education sector to achieve this mandate, continual attention to the quality of academic programmes in Tertiary Education Institutions (TEIs) should be amongst the prioritised action items. One of the key mechanisms used to monitor and ascertain the quality of education provided to the nation is by applying external quality assurance mechanisms, such as programme accreditation.
Before the establishment of the Tertiary Education Council (TEC), individual institutions were accountable to a variety of bodies for the maintenance of their quality assurance systems, for example, the colleges of education and institutes of health sciences affiliated to the University of Botswana, which thus monitored their external quality assurance. Private TEIs offered mostly franchised programmes so endorsement of their quality was by the franchisors, who dictated standards. In most cases, programmes were quality assured by the regulatory and accreditation bodies in the place of origin. The establishment of the TEC brought about a change in this arrangement, as institutions might be affiliated to other institutions of their choice, and might carry out their quality assurance activities to boost their standards. However, they are still accountable to the TEC for their external quality assurance mechanisms, in this instance, programme accreditation.
In this chapter, the context of the study is presented. Section 2.2 gives a synopsis of the Botswana education system. A discussion of the tertiary education landscape ensues, indicating enrolment in both private and public institutions and demonstrating the need for accountability by presenting expenditure on tertiary education (Section 2.3). In Section 2.4, an explanation on how a programme becomes eligible for accreditation is given, paving the way for Section 2.5 in which a discussion of programme accreditation in relation to national development is presented. The Botswana programme accreditation system is presented in Section 2.6, and strengthened in Section 2.7, by explaining how Botswana supplements it. A brief discussion of implications for the study is presented in Section 2.8. The chapter is concluded under Section 2.9.

The Education System in Botswana

Botswana practices a twelve-year basic (general) education system, after which students can transfer to tertiary education on merit. The first seven years of formal schooling are primary education and lay the foundation for five years of secondary education. All school-age children are eligible to enter public schools for the attainment of basic education in public institutions with the sponsorship of government. Children who are educated in private schools are sponsored by parents or guardians, with promotion to tertiary education based on aptitude and the entry requirements of the programme for which the student would like to enrol. The normal tertiary education entry requirements are a pass in the Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE), obtained after twelve years of formal schooling. Those who took less than 12 years are special cases who in most cases missed some classes in the process. A diagrammatical representation of the structure of the education system in Botswana is presented in Figure 2.1.
Basic education is free and incorporates pre-primary to secondary education. Primary education is compulsory and takes seven years, the curriculum being aimed at equipping children with literacy skills to lay the foundation for reflective and critical thinking. Secondary education is divided into junior secondary and senior secondary. Although the students sit for primary school-leaving examinations there is automatic promotion from primary to junior secondary school. A student should earn a pass in junior secondary school to be eligible for a place in senior secondary school. Successful completion of senior secondary education ends in BGCSE, which is a passport to tertiary education. Students who do not do well at different levels can be absorbed into brigades and other programmes to give them survival skills, or they can drop out of the educational system.
At the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conference on higher education, with the theme ‘a system approach to higher education institutions towards knowledge networks and societal trust’, Heitor (2008) hinted that it is imperative that TEIs strengthen capacity by making the necessary changes that will assist in making their systems fit modern society. The teaching and learning resources should be improved to ensure that they contribute towards educational diversity, taking cognisance of the educational quality issues. Heitor (2008) further advised that TEIs should ensure that they have communication and partnerships with economic, political and social communities, because the networks will open communication doors and foster institutional integrity. The association or partnerships could also encourage institutions to comply with the demands of the economic forces, because they will be alert to the contemporary issues such as the changing economic landscape that dictates changes in the approach to attending to educational issues. The changes might be in the form of knowledge areas required in the economy, thereby dictating amendment in the fields of study offered within institutions. Thus, the Botswana education system should not be isolated but should rather fit in with international trends if it is to accommodate the international perspective (Section 1.2).
To give a clearer view of the education system, the education statistics for Botswana as at 2009/10 records (records relevant to this study) are presented in Table 2.1.
The 2009/10 gross enrolment ratio for age group 18 to 24 in TEIs was 13.4% while for secondary schools it was 84%. For industrialised countries, the transition rate from secondary school to tertiary education was 62% (OECD, 2012). Botswana is an upper middle income country with great reliance on the mining industry, therefore the wish to make a transition to a knowledge-based economy partly implies it should learn and emulate some of the developments and practices in industrialised countries, one being an increase in the transition rate from secondary education to tertiary education. However, there is already evidence of some growth in the transition rate, as will be seen in the next section.

The Tertiary Education Landscape

For a long time, tertiary education in Botswana was not given sufficient attention. Mgadla (2003) succinctly puts it that from the 1940s and 1950s the number of Batswana students who went to university was very small, with evidence of a slight increase in the 1960s attributed to improvement in the quality of primary and secondary education. More importantly, there were constitutional developments and reforms that were aimed at empowering Batswana to take control in shaping the country’s destiny towards preparation for a takeover from the colonial powers on independence. Mgadla (2003) further states that:
Schooling therefore was structured in such a manner that would produce personnel that would superintend the bureaucratic structure of Government. The pre-occupation with this pattern of educational development had the unfortunate effect of neglecting vocational or tertiary education as more bureaucrats than technocrats were needed. This conformed to the general belief that administration, bureaucracy, and management rather than skills were key to success (p.169).
It was only in later years that the country realised the need for vocational and tertiary education, hence the first university began its teaching in the 1970s with the opening of the Botswana Campus of the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland in 1973.
In this section, the tertiary education landscape in Botswana is introduced by presenting the number of registered institutions and the types of programmes on offer (Sub-section 2.3.1). The student population in the TEIs is discussed (Sub-section 2.3.2) followed by a brief indication about sponsorship arrangements for learners (Sub-section 2.3.3).

Registration of institutions

The establishment of the TEC as a regulatory body to support the government in developing Botswana’s tertiary education system brought about considerable growth in the tertiary education system through both public and private TEIs. According to the tertiary education statistics (TEC, 2011), participation in tertiary education for the age group 18-24 years was 7.5% in 2004/2005, however, by 2009/2010 participation had risen to 15.1%. This increase had both positive and negative implications for the nation’s resources, requiring more transparency and accountability to the stakeholders.
One of the first activities in managing the tertiary education landscape in Botswana was to register existing TEIs and ensure that none were operating without being registered. Registration then became the first process in quality assurance, consisting of two parts: registration, which allowed the institution to run for ten years before application for renewal of registration; and a Letter of Interim Authority (LIA), which allowed the applicant to assemble all the necessary resources within five years for the establishment of the institution. Some of the institutions that applied for registration did not immediately meet the registration threshold requirements and criteria, and as such were advised to make improvements to identified areas before being registered. Most of the private institutions were issued with LIA to allow them to improve on the available resources before being registered. These are the same institutions that underwent programme accreditation as stated in the problem statement (Section 1.3). The law then dictated that anybody who wanted to start a TEI should apply to the TEC for registration. Some applicants were rejected and those who were operating but did not meet threshold requirements and criteria were forced to close. Any institution that classified itself as a TEI but was not registered by the TEC would be an illegal operator. Once discovered, the law takes its course, charging and then closing down the institution. The registration status of TEIs as at December 2013 is presented in Table 2.2.
Amongst the public institutions registered were institutes of health sciences offering different specialisations, colleges of education, technical colleges, a college of agriculture, the University of Botswana, and Botswana College of Distance and Open Learning. There were two universities within the private institutions and the remaining institutions offered a variety of qualifications from diploma level with a number of master’s degree level programmes. An increase in the number of institutions and the number of programmes resulted in an increase in student enrolment.

Enrolment trend

TEIs’ enrolment trend from 2003/04 academic year to 2010/11 increased steadily. The graph (Figure 2.2 next page) shows a positive trend between 2003/04 and 2008/09, and a slight decrease of 1.8% between 2003/04 and 2004/05 that is very difficult to explain. From then onwards there was a positive trend until 2008/09, when total TE enrolment began to drop. Further analysis of the graph shows a sharp increase in TE enrolment between 2006/07 and 2008/09. This is a period when the TE sub-sector experienced private TEIs registering with the TEC and government’s decision to sponsor students in these institutions. However, the decision by government in 2009 to reduce TE funding seems to have been the major factor that contributed to a sharp downfall in total TEI enrolment beginning the academic year 2009/10 (TEC, 2011).

List of Figures
List of Tables
Abbreviations 
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCING THE STUDY
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Launching the Study
1.2.1 Defining programme accreditation
1.2.2 Focusing the study
1.2.3 The foundational policies
1.2.4 International perspective
1.3 Problem Statement and Rationale for the Study
1.4 Significance of the Study
1.5 Research Objectives and Questions
1.6 Research Design
1.7 Conclusion
1.8 Structure of the Thesis
CHAPTER 2: CONTEXT OF THE STUDY
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The Education System in Botswana
2.3 The Tertiary Education Landscape
2.3.1 Registration of institutions
2.3.2 Enrolment trend
2.3.3 Sponsorship for learners
2.4 Eligibility for Programme Accreditation
2.5 Moving Focus from an Individual to National Development
2.6 Programme Accreditation System in Botswana
2.7 Augmentation of the Programme Accreditation Process
2.8 Programme Accreditation Systems
2.9 Implications for the Study
2.10 Conclusion
CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Programme Accreditation as a Concept
3.3 Programme Accreditation and Policy
3.3.1 Mandate to accredit programmes
3.3.2 The scope of programme accreditation
3.4 Programme Accreditation for Improvement
3.5 Programme Accreditation for Accountability
3.6 Specific Requirements and Criteria for Accreditation
3.7 The Commonwealth of Learning Review and Improvement Model
3.8 Scholarly Reviews on Programme Accreditation
3.9 Benefits, Challenges and Recommendations for Programme Accreditation
3.10 The Conceptual Framework
3.11.Conclusion
CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Research Paradigm .
4.3. Ontological and Epistemological Considerations
4.4 Research Design
4.5 Overview of the Research Design as Applied in this Study
4.6 Product Evaluation
4.7 Research Methods
4.8 The Role of the Researcher .
4.9 Ethical Considerations
4.10 Conclusion
CHAPTER 5: PRELIMINARY PHASE – PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION AND NEEDS ANALYSIS
5.1 Introduction .
5.2 Research Design and Methods for the Preliminary Phase
5.3 Findings from the Preliminary Phase
5.4 Design Principles from Phase 1
5.5 Conclusion
CHAPTER 6: PROTOTYPING PHASE – DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT, AND IMPLEMENTATION OF PROTOTYPES
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Research Design for Phase 2
6.3 Programme Accreditation in Different Countries
6.4 Design Principles for Prototype 1
6.5 Formative Evaluation of the Design Principles for Prototype 1
6.6 Try-out of Prototype 1 of the Programme Accreditation System
6.7 Reflections on Implementation of Prototype 1
6.8 Formative Evaluation of Design Principles for Prototype 2
6.9 Conclusion
CHAPTER 7: EVALUATION PHASE
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Research Procedures for Phase 3
7.3 Advancing the Programme Accreditation System
7.4 Evaluation of Characteristics of the System
7.5 Discussion of the Findings
7.6 Presentation of Prototype 2
7.7 Conclusion
CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Summary of the Research
8.3 Main Findings
8.4 Reflections on the Conceptual Framework
8.5 Reflections on the Research Methodology
8.6 Main Conclusions
8.7 Recommendations
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