02nd August 2023
Sello Motseta
A local academic has vociferously backed the decision taken by UNESCO’s General Conference in 1999 to unequivocally champion the implementation by member countries of mother tongue instruction for children from a myriad of ethnic minorities like Basarwa, who were resettled in Kaudwane starting 1997, in an endeavour to improve their economic livelihoods.
Professor Phillip Bulawa, Lecturer in Educational Leadership and Management at the University of Botswana(UB), said “Children are taught complex things at school in a language that is not their mother tongue. Basarwa are no exception.
”Bulawa who said he is Kalanga related how when he went to Maun Secondary School he struggled because he only spoke Kalanga at home. He says this experience is shared by many communities across the country and should be addressed to improve learning outcomes.
“The Chinese do everything in their language including science and maths. They only learn other languages for communication purposes,” said Bulawa.
Bulawa noted that Basarwa have a very high failure rate and believes that mother tongue instruction would help to address this anomaly.
Every year on 21 February, the world celebrates International Mother Language Day, in an effort to promote the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity, and multilingualism for peaceful and sustainable societies in countries around the world especially for ethnic minorities.
UNESCO says research shows that education in mother tongue is a positive contributing key factor for the inclusion of marginalized communities and quality learning, and it also improves learning outcomes and academic performance. This is crucial, especially in primary school to avoid knowledge gaps and increase the speed of learning and comprehension.
Interestingly, one lady who is a Kaudwane resident believed the issue of mother tongue instruction was overrated. “Some children speak Herero or Kalanga at home but cope with instruction in Setswana and English.”
She declined to be named because she feared reprisals in a village with limited job opportunities.
Residents in Kaudwane speak to their children in Sesarwa and believe a language barrier is real.
“It may affect them because they do not have translators at school. Most of the children have parents who do not speak Setswana or English,” said Madaodao Thola, an elderly Kawdwane resident who looks after his sister’s children.
Most of the children in kaudwane who have completed JC, do not have jobs. There are no industries in the village and a bulk of the residents depend on handouts such as the drought relief programme, which gives the villagers P617 monthly. The Village Development Council(VDC) is the biggest employer with a bulk of the jobs involving waste collection and clearing bushes.
But cordial discussions with school authorities at Kaudwane Primary school, on challenges of mother tongue instruction for Basarwa children are almost impossible because of stringent vetting processes imposed by Government owing to bad publicity generated on village around its controversial resettlement of Basarwa from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve(CKGR) in 1997.
Potso Thari, spokesperson for the Ministry of Education demanded that the writer go to a village 95km away on a dirt road in a small village called Letlhakane, to get permission from the Regional Director, to talk to teachers at Kaudwane Primary School.
“Everywhere there are processes. It is a government school so we need to know what you want to discuss with them,” said Thari.
Government is paranoid after harsh criticism of its resettlement exercise from the international NGO Survival international and views any attempts to write stories of the village or its residents as an act of political sabotage designed to tarnish the country’s good image internationally.
Elsia Rankhudu, the Deputy Headmistress at Kaudwane Primary School, said “I cannot assist you without authorisation.”
I was however asked to fill in a log book stating the purpose of my visit. This was despite not being given any assistance or help by school authorities.
A strict database is kept of all people visiting this small derelict village deep in the harsh sands of the CKGR which is almost inaccessible by road during the rainy season.
Amogelang Segootsane, one of the last remaining residents of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), said “Children should be taught in their home language.” He acknowledged the value of being multi lingual but pointed out that despite improvements in their formal education many Basarwa continue to wallow in conditions of abject poverty.
“Children have nothing to do,” said Segootsane.
The remote location and the lack of educational materials in Kaudwane causes many teachers to request to be relocated already after the minimum 3 period. Many teachers want to progress their educational level, which they can only do in urban cities with access to well equipped libraries.
The result is a highly unstable learning environment for Basarwa students, already struggling to cope with learning in a second language. This is a great disadvantage for the learning environment of the students who, especially in grades 1-7, thrive under relationship-based learning.
UNESCO estimates 40 % of world’s population does not have access to an education in a language they speak or understand. There are about 7,000 languages spoken around the world today.
Linguistic diversity is increasingly threatened as more and more languages disappear at an alarming rate, often needlessly rendering an entire cultural and intellectual heritage extinct.
