Africa-Press – Botswana. Contrary to reports that mathematics will be an optional subject at senior secondary school, all pupils will take the subject as core.
The subject will divided into two according to the intensity of the content. This was revealed by the Minister of Education and Skills Development, Dr Douglas Letsholathebe during a media briefing aimed at updating the nation on issues concerning his ministry on Tuesday.
“The difference between the two will be the intensity of the content, with Mathematics II being for those that wish to pursue mathematics related careers, while the less intense mathematics I will be for careers that do not need much maths such as law,” he said.
Dr Letsholathebe dismissed as unfounded, reports that mathematics would be optional at senior school. He said the ministry was ready to implement Phase II of curriculum reforms in March, which would result in the introduction of new subjects at senior schools.
He said that the ministry piloted some subjects in 2021 such as Hospitality and Tourism at Maun secondary as well as Field Crop Production and Animal Production at Moeng College.
“We are so far satisfied with the progress and will therefore spread the subjects to others schools. In April this year we will add more subjects such as the mentioned Mathematics I and II, English and Setswana. I can assure the nation that all is in place to implement this,” he said.
Dr Letsholathebe stated that the plan was to further add subjects such as Textile and Clothing, Food Studies, Virtual Arts, Music and Agricultural Science with time. He said that the Botswana Examinations Council was also ready to assess such subjects, and that school management and teachers had been trained on the new curriculum.
Dr Letsholathebe however, raised concern at the state of infrastructure at most schools across the country, which he said were in need of maintenance. He said a team of experts was already on the ground across the country to assess all schools and prioritise those that badly needed maintenance.
He also said that he was aware of congestion in most schools across the country, with many having more streams than initially planned, which he said affected seamless curriculum delivery.
The minister explained that all the proposed reforms were informed by the Education and Training Sector Strategic Plan (2015-2020), which intended to increase access to education and improve its relevance to the needs of the market.
Dr Letsholathebe noted that there were complaints that graduates were not ready for the job market to the extent that some employers were forced to re-train their entry level employees to meet organisational needs. Apart from reforming junior and secondary schools curriculum, Dr Letsholathebe also raised a need to improve the curriculum of Technical and Vocational Education Training, which he said would help boost innovation.
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