Africa-Press – Botswana. If education is the foundation of a nation’s progress, our neglect of teachers is a deliberate dismantling of that foundation. This is because a teacher is the bedrock of civilisation, the weaver of intellect and the guardian of a nation’s soul. The logicality is simple: When the teacher is reduced to a marginal figure in society, the entire nation follows into decline.
Special Correspondent
Botswana prides itself in its substantial investment in education, spending one of the highest percentages of GDP on schooling in Africa. It boasts free state education, yet the results tell a grim story of declining performance, falling standards, and a moral erosion that should alarm even the most indifferent observer.
Let us remind ourselves of the results of the 2024 Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) just released by the Botswana Examinations Council (BEC)
Key results:
2.84% of candidates achieved Grade A or better, compared to 3.7% in 2023
31.35% of candidates got grade C or better, compared to 32.3% in 2023
74.7% of candidates achieved grade E or better, compared to 75% in 2023
96.47% of candidates achieved grade G or better, compared to 95.80% in 2023
Nobody would disagree with the conclusion that these results are once again disappointing. This item focuses on the providers of education, namely teachers, into whose hands we place the future of our children. There is an unspoken truth that we have allowed to fester: a nation’s future is only as strong as the hands that shape its young minds. And yet, in Botswana, the very people entrusted with this sacred duty—our teachers—are disrespected, underpaid, and increasingly disillusioned. If education is the foundation of a nation’s progress, then our neglect of teachers is a deliberate dismantling of that foundation.
An education system in free fall
Year after year, exam results decline, functional literacy shrinks, and dropout rates rise. We put thousands of students through a system that guarantees free access but denies them quality. Schools are dilapidated, resources stretched thin, discipline is crumbling, and most all, teaching morale is at an all-time low.
No education system in history has ever risen above the quality of its teachers. Yet in Botswana, the profession has been systematically degraded. A teacher’s salary barely covers the cost of living, reducing one of the noblest callings to a struggle for survival. Teachers employed under short-term contracts, having no job security, and are thus not motivated to add value. The country’s engineers of thought are trapped in a daily grind of financial insecurity, drowning in administrative burdens, and left without the professional respect that should be their due.
The decline of the teacher, the decline of the nation
A teacher is not merely an employee of the state. A teacher is the bedrock of civilisation, the weaver of intellect and the guardian of a nation’s soul. When the teacher is reduced to a marginal figure in society, the entire nation follows into decline.
The symptoms of this neglect are plain to see:
A broken learning culture where exam cheating and apathy are common.
A school system where discipline has eroded to the point of chaos.
A curriculum that recycles outdated knowledge while the world surges ahead in the digital revolution.
A moral vacuum where values, ethics and integrity – once instilled in classrooms – are now treated as an afterthought.
We lament the rise in unemployment, the stagnation of innovation, and the weakening of national identity, yet we ignore the very profession that should be the first line of defence against these crises.
Paying lip service to education while undermining it
The government never fails to remind us of its commitment to education. Grand speeches are made, policy documents are published, and funding is allocated. But all of this is meaningless if the profession itself remains an unattractive, demoralising career choice.
A teacher’s salary in Botswana is among the lowest in the public sector, often trailing behind that of administrative staff in government offices. Meanwhile, unlike bureaucrats, expectations for performance remain high. Policymakers demand excellence from teachers but refuse to provide them with the dignity, respect, and financial security that excellence requires.
The irony is unbearable. We expect teachers to raise leaders but we treat them as an afterthought. We expect them to inspire but we give them no inspiration. We ask them to produce future doctors, engineers, and entrepreneurs, yet we pay them so poorly that their own children struggle to see the value in following their path.
A call to action: Restore the teacher, restore the nation
Botswana can continue its descent into mediocrity, or it can choose a bold new path: one where education is more than just a budget item, and where teachers are honoured as the custodians of national progress.
The solution is neither radical nor impossible. It starts with three fundamental actions:
Elevate the Status of the Teaching Profession
Raise salaries to levels that reflect the importance of the job.
Provide career development and professional growth opportunities.
Reinforce classroom discipline to restore the teacher’s authority.
Fix the Learning Environment
Reduce teacher-to-student ratios to enable meaningful instruction.
Introduce modern teaching resources, digital learning tools, and curriculum reforms that align with the modern economy.
Instil a culture of accountability among students, teachers and policymakers.
Reinstate Moral and Civic Education
Bring back structured moral instruction and civic responsibility in the curriculum.
Make teachers active participants in shaping a values-based national identity.
A Nation Without Teachers is a Nation Without a Future
A nation that pays its teachers in scraps will harvest ignorance in abundance. Botswana’s decline in education is not a mystery – it is the direct consequence of years of sidelining the profession that determines the future.
History is unkind to nations that allow their intellectual foundations to decay. If Botswana wishes to stand tall in the future, it must first lift its teachers out of the shadows. For in their hands lies not only the minds of our children but the destiny of the nation itself.
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