Journal article

A Reflection on the Issues of Equality and Equity in Education in Botswana: The question of the San Minorities


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Author list: Gabanamotse-Mogara B
Chebanne A



Research now abounds on the issues that bedevil the education of minority ethnic groups in Botswana. If a consideration is made about language as a human right, the right to learn in one’s language becomes fundamental. Indeed, issues of equality and equity in education are subsumed in many strategies, policies, and laws that define the education of a nation. Education, therefore, concerns itself with the societal knowledge systems and values that originate from its culture and the world. Policies and their philosophies of education especially those that define it as a culture-based all-inclusive process, view education as concerned with the representation of self in learning and how that self integrates in a meaningful and harmonious way in the socio-economic and national processes. If it can be argued that in Botswana there is equal access, there is no equity in access. Equality as construed in Botswana is vague and a less effective means to achieve equity in education. This is so because the current system operates under the generalization of the beliefs of homogeneity which benefits the majority and the powerful. When minority language speakers, such as the San (Khoisan), are considered, they suffer from being sidelined and rendered irrelevant in terms of educational values, at least at the formative stage. Matters of mother tongue education, culture-infused curriculum, and teacher training which take into account the social realities of inequities can enhance equity, self-actualization, mutual responsibility, and common citizenry in Botswana. A meaningful education should, therefore, underline standards that bring about constructive development of the self, democracy, self-reliance, and cherishing of unity in diversity.


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Last updated on 2025-28-03 at 14:51