Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T21:01:56.108Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Why We Drop Out of School: Voices of San School Dropouts in Botswana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2014

Eureka B. Mokibelo
Eureka B. Mokibelo*
Affiliation:
Communications and Skills Unit, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana
*
address for correspondence: Eureka B. Mokibelo, Communications and Skills Unit, University of Botswana, Private Bag 0022, Gaborone, Botswana. Email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Among San communities in Botswana, the rate of student disengagement from both primary and junior secondary school is an ongoing concern for educators. San learners leave school at all levels of primary and junior secondary education. Students who leave school have tended not to provide reasons as to why they are dropping out. This study investigated some of the reasons why San learners decided to drop out at primary and junior secondary school levels in the Central District in Botswana. In-depth interviews were undertaken with 20 former students living in five cattle-posts where the participants worked as cattle herders. The results indicate that some San drop out of school for reasons of survival, both within and outside school. The findings of the study offer insights into some of the issues that impede students within San communities in achieving their educational goals. Further, the findings could assist educational authorities in their review of current educational practices in Botswana so that that all citizens can be appropriately accommodated within the education system.

Keywords

Sandisengagementremote areascattle-posts
Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , December 2014 , pp. 185 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ananga, E.D. (2011). Typology of school dropout: The dimensions and dynamics of dropout in Ghana. International Journal of Educational Development, 31, 374–381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bagwasi, M. (2005). Mother tongue and multicultural education. In Hays, J. (Ed.), For the benefit of all: Mother tongue education for Southern African minorities. (p. 5). Baborone, Botswana: WIMSA.Google Scholar
Banda, F. (2000). The dilemma of the mother tongue: Prospects for bilingual education in South Africa. Language Culture and Curriculum, 13 (1), 51–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batibo, H. (2005). Language decline and death in Africa: Causes, consequences and challenges. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 3 (3), 149–166.Google Scholar
Batibo, H.B., & Tsonope, J. (2000). (Eds.) The state of Khoesan languages in Botswana. Mogoditshane, Botswana: Tassalls Publishing Books.Google Scholar
Bolaane, M., & Saugestad, S. (2006). Mother tongue: Old debates and new initiatives in San education. Indigenous Affairs, 1 (6), 46–54.Google Scholar
Botswana National Commission on Education. (1977). Education for Kagisano. Gaborone, Botswana: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Broom, Y. (2004). Reading English in multilingual South African primary schools. Bilingual Education in Bilingualism, 7 (6), 506–528.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chebanne, A. (2002). Minority languages and minority people: Issues on linguistic, cultural and ethnic death in Botswana. In Mazonde, I. (Ed.), Minorities in the millennium: Perspectives from Botswana (pp. 47–56). Gaborone, Botswana: Lightbooks.Google Scholar
Chung, C., & Mason, M. (2012). Why do primary school students drop out in poor, rural China? A portrait sketched in a remote mountain village. International Journal of Educational Development, 32, 537–545.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drong, S. (2009). Bangladesh: Ethnic minority face higher school dropout risk. IRIN Humanitarian News and Analysis. Retrieved from http://www.irinnews.org/report/94139/bangladesh-ethnic-minorities-face-higher-school-drop-out-riskGoogle Scholar
Fleish, B., Shindler, J., & Perry, H. (2012). Who is out of school? Evidence from the statistics South Africa community survey. International Journal of Educational Development, 32 (4), 529–536.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Government of Botswana & United Nations. (2004). Millennium Development Goals status report. Gaborone, Botswana: Author.Google Scholar
Greener, R.A. (2003). Report on the review of the Remote Area Development Programme (RADP). Gaborone, Botswana: Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis.Google Scholar
Hasselbring, S., Segatlhe, T., & Munch, J. (2001). A sociolinguistic survey of the languages of Botswana. Gaborone, Botswana: Printing and Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Hunt, F. (2008). Dropping out from school: A cross-country review of literature (CREATE Pathways to Access Research Monograph No. 16). Brighton, UK: Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity, University of Sussex.Google Scholar
Hays, J. (2002). Education and San of Southern Africa: The search for alternatives. In Mazonde, I. (Ed.), Minorities in the millennium: Perspectives from Botswana (pp. 73–88). Gaborone, Botswana: Lightbooks.Google Scholar
Hays, J. (2006). For the benefit of all: Mother tongue education for Southern African minorities. Gaborone, Botswana: WIMSA.Google Scholar
Ketsitlile, L. (2009). The status of literacy education for the San of Botswana. Alternative: An International Journal of Indigenous People, 5 (2), 201–225.Google Scholar
Kioko, A.N., & Muthwli, M. (2001). The demands of a changing society: English in education in Kenya today. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 14 (3), 201–213.Google Scholar
Kyeyune, R. (2003). Challenges of using English as a medium of instruction in multilingual contexts: A view from Ugandan classrooms. Language Culture and Curriculum, 16 (2), 173–184.Google Scholar
Kvale, S. (1996). Interviews: An introduction to qualitative research interviewing. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Letshabo, K. (2002). Breakthrough to literacy (Evaluation report). Nairobi: UNICEF.Google Scholar
le Roux, W. (1999). Torn apart: San children as change agents in a process of acculturation. Windhoek, Namibia, and Ghanzi, Botswana: Kuru Development Trust and WIMSA.Google Scholar
Mafela, L. (2010). Colonial literacy and the socio-political dimensions of history syllabus in colonial Botswana. Literacy Information and Computer Education Journal, 1 (2), 67–74.Google Scholar
Mokibelo, E.B., & Moumakwa, T.V. (2006). Social factors that contribute to the reading incompetence of Khoe learners at Motshegaletau Primary School. PULA: Botswana Journal of African Studies, 20 (2), 106–113.Google Scholar
Mokibelo, E.B. (2008). A tracer study: Learners’ ability to read English texts at Junior secondary school. Unpublished report.Google Scholar
Molosiwa, A. (2005). Extinction or Distinction? Empowering Setswana as the medium of instruction and instrument in Botswana Schools. In Brock-Utne, B. & Hopson, R.K. (Eds.), Languages of instruction for African emancipation (pp. 175–198). Cape Town, South Africa: Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society.Google Scholar
Monyatsi, P.P. (2009). The impact of the mother tongue on the schooling of Basarwa students at junior secondary school level in Botswana. In Kamwendo, G., Jankie, D., & Chebanne, A. (Eds.), Multilingualism in education and communities in Southern Africa (pp. 125–132). Gaborone, Botswana: UBTromso Collaborative Programme for San Research and Capacity Building.Google Scholar
Nguluka, S., & Gunnestad, P. (2011). San children — in or out of school. Gaborone, Botswana: Impression House.Google Scholar
Nyati-Ramahobo, L. (2004). The language situation in Botswana. In Baldauf, R. & Kaplan, R. (Eds.), Language planning and policy: Africa (vol. 1, pp. 21–78). Buffalo, NY: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pavlenko, A. (2003). ‘Language of the enemy’: Foreign language education and national identity. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 6 (5), 313–331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polelo, M.M. (2004). Disengagement from school among the Remote Area Dweller Settlers (RADs) of Western Botswana: Conflicting cultural and value systems. Educational Research and Knowledge Systems, 65–109.Google Scholar
Republic of Botswana. (1977). National Commission on Education. Gaborone, Botswana: Government Printers.Google Scholar
Republic of Botswana. (1994). Revised National Policy on Education. Gaborone, Botswana: Government Printers.Google Scholar
Samovar, L.A., & Porter, R.E. (1995). Communication between cultures. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Saugestad, S. (2001). The inconvenient Indigenous. Remote area development in Botswana, donor assistance, and the First People of the Kalahari. Uppsala, Sweden: Nordic Africa Institute.Google Scholar
Shah, S.W.A., Amir, S., Akhtar, S.H., & Din, M.N.U. (2011). The impact of multiple factors on dropout trend in government primary schools in district Mardan. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 3 (5), 894–901.Google Scholar