BSW 307: Social Service

planning

MASEDI JANE GAJEKGOMO-201803004

QUESTION: WHICH CONCEPTUAL MODEL, IDEOLOGICAL

Botswana’s education system was informal in the 18 th and 19th century and was acquired through
family and initiation schools before the missionaries came to Botswana and the initiates were
trained to become disciplined, productive and responsible adults in their communities, [ CITATION
Bag18 \l 1033 ]. According to [ CITATION Mos01 \l 1033 ] , the goal of the initiation was not only to
make initiates knowledgeable but to transform them into different people and separate them from
their childhood existence. As time went on, the missionaries came to Botswana during the period
of colonialization when it was colonized by Britain and Botswana by that time was called
Bechuanaland Protectorate. They brought the western education and the traditional one of
initiation schools slowly vanished as they criticized initiation schools. The education system was
in the hands of missionaries and after a period of about ten years after Botswana gained
independence, they had an opportunity to make their own national commission on education
which was commissioned in 1975, [ CITATION Bag18 \l 1033 ] . Botswana then made her own
education policy in 1977 which sanctioned the philosophy of ‘Education for Kagisano’, which
means education for social harmony. and made its second one in 1994, which is the current one
called. The education system of Botswana was then influenced by ideological perspective as the
people in power like the ministers and members of parliaments are the ones who make the
policies. The paper will give a definition of ideological system, the history of the education
policy of Botswana, how the ideological perspective influenced the policy and lastly give a
judgment on the framework for planning and how it can be improved.

Ideological perspective

According to [ CITATION Odd20 \l 1033 ], an ideology is a system of ideas and ideals, especially
one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy. Ideological perspective of
social planning comes from the term ideology and it is a body of ideas that reflects the beliefs
and interests of a nation, political system and underlies political system. According to [ CITATION
Bla07 \l 1033 ], those system of beliefs and values are used to guide action. That is, the beliefs and
values are used to influence and guide the actions like planning; a certain logic is followed to
make such actions. According to Metzger, Allmendinger & Kornberger (2020), it is in the
planners’ efforts to get things done that they become deeply entangled in the social dynamics of

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ideology. This means that the planners are more concerned with getting things done and they end
up finding themselves embroiled in the changing social aspects of the ideology.

History of the education policy of Botswana and how ideological perspective influenced it

The first education policy of Botswana which was based on the four national principles of
democracy, development, self-reliance and unity. The first education level was seven years of
primary education where each year of study was recognized as standard, followed by two years
of secondary education where each level is a form. Upon completing junior certificate level with
high grades, one would progress to senior secondary for three years, followed by tertiary or
vocational training institutions looking at the performance. The government of Botswana came
together and came up with ways of improving the quality and relevance of education and it was a
way of responding to globalization. This was done by politicians and they made a revised policy
in 1994 termed the Revised National Policy on Botswana (RNPE) of 1994. Botswana made an
aspiration of an educated and informed nation by 2016 in its Vision 2016 pillars and this inspired
the country to have a good quality of education. These changes, aspirations, modifications and
implementation of the policies are guided by the ideological perspective as the politicians are the
ones who influence the changes. They hold the parliamentary debates on the new laws and
policies and mostly they’ll vote either for or against the passing of the policy. If the majority of
people voted for the motion or law, it is passed on and if majority voted against then they will
reject the motion or law.

The policies are made by an arm of government called the legislature, which consists of the
members of parliament, and then enforced by the executive branch of government which is made
of the president, vice president and the cabinet ministers, [ CITATION Obe01 \l 1033 ] . Its main duty
is to run the country and to make the policy in the best interests of its citizens and terms in the
constitution. The Botswana’s education policy is influenced by ideological perspective as the
nation share certain educational or academic beliefs and such beliefs influence the way
individuals act, think and view the world. There are different types of ideologies like political
ideologies and cultural and social ideologies, [ CITATION Pol19 \l 1033 ]. The difference between
the two ideologies is that in the political one, political parties embody a range of ideals covering
fields government, economics, healthcare and education whereas in cultural and social ideologies
it is more concentrated on the environment and social life of people like gender issues. The

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education policy of Botswana is influenced by the political ideology. According to [ CITATION
Rit04 \l 1033 ], in this type of ideology, we come across some theories like the conflict theory as
children from higher class are more likely to be more educated and favored much by the
education policy than the ones from the lower class. Children from the upper social classes also
have more access to some resources and better learning facilities like private schools as they
have money to pay for whatever school they want, unlike the ones from lower class as they can
only afford public schools which are well-known of poor quality of education. Also, children
from rich families may re-write the examinations they failed so that they can proceed to the next
level as they have money to pay for themselves and hire tutors, unlike the ones from poor
families who will fail and stay at home because they do not have money for going back to school
and for paying for the examinations.

The education policy is also influenced by polity because the examinations setting, syllabus and
grading are made and modified by those in power. Every year before standard 7, form 3 and
form 5 students can write their final examinations, the ministry of education hold meetings,
workshops and discussions on how and when the students will be examined. They are the ones
who propose the dates of the examination periods and when the results will be released under
Botswana Examinations Council and if there is anything regarding the education system and
policy that needs to be modified or changed, it firstly pass through the members of parliament
who are politicians.

Judgement and what can be done

In my own view, the framework of ideological perspective fits the education policy because all
the policies of Botswana are influenced by polity as the arms of government are the ones
responsible for policy making, the funds come from the government who is also part of politics
but it should be reviewed so that it is people oriented. Botswana is said to be a democratic
country but some decisions made by the ministers and members of parliaments do not favor all
as the members of parliaments vote for motions as a way of showing their loyalty to their
political parties. For example, in Botswana the ruling party is Botswana Democratic Party and if
the president comes up with a motion like the extension of the State of Emergency, the BDP
members will vote in support of the president as a way of showing loyalty to the party, even
though the motion has negative consequences to people. People have to be involved in making

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changes and developments in the education system of their country because they are the ones
who suffer the consequences and outcomes of the education.

The framework should also be reviewed to consider some factors like the students’ income so
that the ones from poor families can be given allowances or extra money to take care of their
school needs like the ones from rich families who always have money for their school needs.
Also, the criteria of giving students allowances at tertiary level should be reviewed as some
students benefit twice by getting some other allowances from their parents whereas the ones
from poor families only survive with the little allowance they get from the government. This can
help reduce the gap between the poor and the rich, hence helping both parties to be in a good
conducive environment for studying. Karl Marx termed this gap between the rich and the poor
‘conflict theory’, which views the society as being made up of individuals in different classes
who must compete for social, material and political resources such as food, housing,
employment, education and others, [ CITATION Fri09 \l 1033 ]. Social institutions like government
and education in the context to this paper reflect such competition in their inherent inequalities
and contribute to unequal social structure.

The education system in Botswana is an academically oriented schooling system that does not
encourage diversity of career opportunities and tends to follow paths oriented toward academic
achievement and it can be argued that, it is this bias towards the academic excellence and
training which is not market based, leading to high employment rate, (Ministry of Labour and
Home Affairs, 2004). This statement is true as most students in schools are only taught theory
without more practice because of the ideological perspective influence to planning and the job
market will on the other hand be looking for more experienced personnel yet people were taught
more theory than practice in schools. This has resulted in many youth graduating and staying
home with their degrees as they are not more experienced about the practical part of the job. This
in turn leads to companies hiring people from other counties who can speed up production and
leave Batswana jobless. Therefore, education policy has to be reviewed and revised so that at
least every student goes out in the field of work during their years of study so that they may
apply the theory and skills they learn in school. For example, some departments in the University
of Botswana do not place their students in fieldwork attachments and it has been worse during
the period of covid-19 pandemic. This is because the companies do not want to receive students

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because they fear contracting the virus. The government should at least make a request to the
companies to cater for students so that they can be more experienced when they join the field of
work. This can only be achieved by holding some parliamentary debates where they will discuss
on the best ways of engaging students in the field of work while they are still in schools as they
are the main influencers of planning.

The framework also needs to be reviewed and take into consideration the ecological perspective
which is about how the system works within its external environment. The perspective suggests
that some disturbances within the environment like the emotional disturbances, beliefs and some
habits in the society influences how people will behave in their society, (Winters & Easton
1983). This can help in the education policy of Botswana because some students fail not because
they are not intelligent but because of their environment. Examples of environmental factors that
may contribute to students’ failure include the beliefs like witchcraft in their community, the
belief that their school has ghosts and the parents’ input and participation in their children’s
schoolwork. The system should consider such factors so that the students’ academic performance
can be improved. Parents should be part of their children’s education and help reduce the
workload of the teachers. The policy makers can come together, call meetings with parents and
the leaders of the community so that they can work together to achieve a common goal of
improving academic performance and producing competitive students who can compete with
other students in all parts of Africa.

Conclusion

There’s no proper planning in Botswana because in most cases, the plans of implementation,
monitoring and evaluation are not drawn in paper and distributed to people so that they can have
an idea of what is happening in their social services. The education policy of Botswana is
outdated as the current one is that of 1994, when the country had less developments. It has been
influenced by the ideological perspective as policies and laws are made by politicians. The
policies should not only be in the hands of politicians. The village representatives like the village
development committees and other leaders like chiefs should be involved in the policy making,
new developments and implementation of new policies in the country because everyone in the
country is affected by the decisions and policies made. Such representatives can call meetings
with the members of the society and get their ideas and opinions regarding implementation of

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new policies so that everyone can be involved in the decisions and policies of their country. We
cannot only rely in the decisions of the politicians without us being involved because at the end
of the day we are the ones who suffer therefore a new policy has to be made where other
frameworks like ecological framework of planning are used to produce a good quality policy.

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