Primary education improvement

PES covers the period 10/82-10/83 and is based on site visits and interviews with USAID/B, project, and Batswana personnel. Excellent progress has been made. The Primary Education Department at the University of Botswana (UB) is fully functioning within the newly-constructed Primary Education Center. Although UB staff shortages have delayed the departure of 9 staff for U.S. M.Ed. programs (only 5 have left) and of 2 for in-country courses, the planned replacement of the 4 Ohio University faculty by Batswana should be complete by mid-1986. The pre-service program, accepting 1 of every 8 applicants, has enrolled 90 students 19 of whom will graduate with 4-year B.Ed. degrees in 1985; 8 Diploma students graduated in 1983 and have taken head and deputy head teaching posts. The well-received inservice training program has conducted 6 week-long, regional workshops (in math, science, reading) at Teacher Training Colleges (TTC"s), Education Centers (EC"s), UB, and hotels for 30 leadership teams (comprising 30 education officers - EO"s - and 150 head/senior teachers); the teams have held weekend workshops for an estimated 1,150 teachers from 180 schools. In addition, EO"s have attended two 1-week workshops at UB, while TTC tutors have worked with UB faculty each year for a week to coordinate UB/TTC curriculum. However, institutionalization of inservice training has been hampered by lack of program coordination (e.g., the advisory committee does not meet regularly; there is only one national inservice leader, and her role is unclear) and by inadequate coordination with other Ministry of Education structures (e.g., TTC"s, EC"s). Other problems have included: the tardy arrival of books/materials and their inadequate coverage of African subjects; lack of storage space (shelves, cabinets) at UB"s Primary Education Center; and, impeding project evaluation, lack of commodity inventory and workshop attendance records, and incomplete student/teacher performance assessments. Eleven recommendations are given.