Two years after the launch of Botswana’s Mother Tongue Education Policy, aimed at enhancing early-grade learning through the use of indigenous languages, implementation challenges are being experienced in the North West Education Region.
Introduced in 2023, the policy was designed to improve comprehension and academic performance among young learners by incorporating local languages with Seherero, Seyei, and Sembukushu at the forefront for North West Region into instruction from preschool through Standard 2. The initiative engaged 170 primary schools nationwide, with 37 located in the North West region.
However, according to Veronica Ridge, Principal Education Officer II at the North West Education Region, the program’s rollout has been uneven.
“While the initiative has shown positive impacts on academic excellence, the results have not met expectations and not all schools have fully adopted the translation of instructional materials into the targeted indigenous languages, leading to inconsistencies in execution,” Ridge stated.
Ridge also highlighted several obstacles hindering the policy’s success, including inadequate training for teacher aides, some of whom were non-native speakers facing challenges in classroom delivery, and a shortage of qualified educators fluent in the required languages.
Additionally, financial constraints have impeded effective monitoring and evaluation of the program’s impact.
Ridge noted that the policy could be a breakthrough for learners who previously struggled to catch up in Setswana-medium instruction. She revealed that some native speakers of local languages admitted to having performed poorly in school because they were introduced to Setswana much later, which placed them at an academic disadvantage.
She further explained that when children cannot understand lessons due to language barriers, they often feel embarrassed to participate in class, which contributes to dropout, and in some extreme cases leads to bullying.
Ridge expressed the need for the ministry to allocate a dedicated budget towards the Indigenous Language Policy, emphasising that sustained funding would allow for consistent monitoring and evaluation.
She further highlighted the importance of providing transport specifically for the project over the next three years to facilitate regular visits to schools, enabling officers to gather feedback from both learners and educators and identify areas for improvement that could help the program thrive.
Public Relations Officer for the North West Education Region, One Molokwe acknowledged the program’s potential and emphasised the need for strategic improvements.
“The programme has potential if implementation thereof can be improved and enforced strategically,” Molokwe commented.
She also highlighted that with enhanced implementation strategies, the initiative could lead to transformative success in the region’s academic performance.
As the North West Education Region continues to refine the implementation of the Mother Tongue Education Policy, the commitment to enhancing educational outcomes through indigenous language instruction remains a focal point in the pursuit of inclusive and effective education for all students.
