Life in Gabs now has a sort of predictable routine. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I have my Demography of Botswana class at UB from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. and during those afternoons and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I get some computer work done in my office and try to make appointments to interview people. Public schools have been taking exams since March 14 and will be on break from April 5 to April 23, so no school visits again until late April. Friday afternoons I am typically at the Gaborone Public Library with Banabakgwale Association for the SDGs seminar for kids. Connecting with people to interview can be either surprisingly easy or amazingly difficult. I've taken to using Facebook to identify potential organizations and people, send a Facebook message and then if I'm lucky this leads to an exchange of WhatsApp numbers and/or local phone numbers and the communication progresses from there. A few professors at UB have been helpful, especially Dr. Kubanji, but for the most part I am left to my own devices. Once I connect with someone, say from a NGO, I ask for contact info for others that they recommend. E-mail is the least effective method of communication. A portion of my Inquiry Project focuses on better understanding efforts on the part of government, education and NGOs in Botswana to empower youth to contribute to sustainable development. The most interesting efforts are coming from the youth themselves, in particular those that have chosen to form NGOs and businesses to help fellow youth develop soft skills that are not generated by the educational system itself. This week I met with Laone of Young Minds Association. Young Minds is an NGO that focuses on youth unemployment using entrepreneurship as a tool and utilizes a three-step process: motivate, train and mentor. Young Minds will be offering trainings this week on the UB campus as part of an Entrepreneurship Week and also secured a contract with the U.S. Embassy to provide an upcoming 6-week entrepreneurship training for 50 youth. Laone explained to me the "blame game" surrounding youth unemployment, which now sits officially at 36%, but is in reality thought to be much higher. Botswana's employers say youth lack skills. Botswana's government and some members of the general public say youth are lazy and unwilling to take entry level jobs. The youth and their advocates say it is nearly impossible to be hired, even with a university degree. When youth organized a nonviolent unemployment protest in front of Parliament in 2016, they were beaten and jailed. A follow-up meeting this week with Sammy and Rati of The Botswana Youth Empowerment Projects offered further support for these ideas. Listen to their contribution to a BBC radio story about youth unemployment in Botswana. On Thursday I attended a Human Trafficking in Botswana Youth Conference organized by a group of 2018 Mandela Washington Fellows at the UB Conference Center. More than 200 youth attended the conference which included presentations by a survivor of human trafficking, representatives of the International Organisation for Migration, the Botswana Ministry of Defense, Justice & Security, the Botswana Department of Social Protection, the Gaborone City Council Mayor, the Deputy Chief of Mission for the U.S. Embassy Kali Jones, and brief comments by the new U.S. Ambassador to Botswana, Craig Cloud. The survivor of human trafficking spoke in Setswana, so I was not able to understand her story, but it was obvious from the reaction of the audience that it was riveting. The Q & A segments were thought-provoking and it was inspiring to see a room full of youth engaged and motivated to take action. On a global scale, Botswana is not a major destination or transit country for human trafficking, but trafficking is an issue of concern and HIV/AIDS orphans and unemployed youth in particular may be targets. The government of Botswana is currently assisting 31 identified victims of human trafficking. I journeyed to Gabone by combi once again with Tebatso and Motheo of Banabakgwale Association to visit the Head of School at Nare Sereto Junior Secondary School. When I visited the school last week we met with the Deputy School Head, but protocol requires that we meet with the actual Head of School before proceeding with our project. I am piggy backing on the work that Tebatso is doing with the after school ICT Club, hoping to survey those students and to engage them in a future SDGs-related Flipgrid dialogue with Stillwater students. Plans move slowly.
A wrinkle in these plans is that Tebatso was notified late Thursday that he has been accepted into the Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) Regional Leadership Center Cohort 17. I am so happy for him and all of the doors that this will open for him and as an American, proud of the Obama administration for launching this program that continues to positively impact many young leaders that I am meeting in Botswana. (As an alumnus of the U.S. Department of State Teachers for Global Classrooms program I scored 40 applications for this program back in 2014, which was fascinating.) When I asked what this opportunity means to him, Tebatso replied “It means growth”, with a big smile on his face. This does mean, however, that he will need to be in South Africa for the training from May 6th to May 23rd. So, we shall see how our plans at Nare Sereto progress.
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Botswana's never ending summer continues, with hot sun, little rain and temps in the 90's. Batswana are constantly talking about the hot, dry weather and the impacts of climate change they are experiencing now. Botswana is an arid country with an agricultural sector dependent on cattle grazing and sorghum and maize crops. Cattle can't find enough grass to eat and farmers can't plant crops in dust. Meanwhile, neighboring Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe are reeling from the storm surge and flooding wrought by Cyclone Idai.
This week I visited a private school, Westwood International. Westwood is an International Baccalaureate (IB) school that includes both primary and secondary grades. I was welcomed by the Secondary Principal and spent time in four Geography classes, two with high school aged students and two with middle school aged students. Lesson topics included economic flows, extreme environments, map reading and biomes. Westwood is similar in many ways to Maru-a-pula that I visited last week. The high school level Geography teacher supplements her curriculum with some of the same online resources that we use in Stillwater. On Thursday I interviewed Andrea Malenya of the Botswana Book Project, which is affiliated with Books for Africa. We talked about the possibility of the Gaborone Public Library tapping into their book donation system as the children's library only has four shelving units of books, most of which are old and Eurocentric. I shared her business card with the librarians and they plan on arranging a meeting. I also headed outside of Gabs to Gabane to visit Nare Sereto Junior Secondary School with Tebatso of Banabakgwale Association. They have "adopted" the school and help with an ICT Club after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We met with the ICT teacher Gloria and the ICT Club and discussed plans for me to possibly conduct a survey with the learners and help organize a virtual exchange with Stillwater as part of their World ICT Day event in May. Interestingly, their computer lab currently has NO COMPUTERS in it as it is being used as a teacher work room during renovations. Friday included a sort of scavenger hunt around Gabs to find the correct offices of the Department of Immigration and Citizen Services to either procure a residence permit waiver, a residence permit or an extension of my tourist visa. I was able to get my tourist visa extended by 30 days but will need to return in a few weeks with more letters and documents in hand to secure permission for my remaining time in country. This week I was welcomed to three schools by kind administrators and teachers. I spent a day each in two public schools, Gaborone Senior Secondary and Naledi Senior Secondary. As Senior Secondary schools, they offer Form 4 and Form 5, equivalent in the U.S. system to grades 11 and 12. Social Science courses are not required, but students can choose to take History, Social Studies, Geography and/or Development Studies. There is a fair amount of overlap in the Social Studies, Geography and Development Studies syllabi and I was told it is unusual for a student to take more than one of these two-year courses while at Senior Secondary. I have had the opportunity to visit lots of secondary schools on the African continent over the past eight years, including schools in Ghana, Namibia, Kenya and now Botswana. The continent is huge and diverse, but there is a similarity in what I have seen in public schools in all four countries, certainly related to the European colonial and missionary legacy. School starts and dismisses relatively early in the day to beat the heat. Classrooms are simple, crowded with well-worn tables and chairs, a chalkboard, lots of ambient noise and maybe ceiling fans. Instructional resources are scarce and dated, instruction is in the second (or third or fourth) language of English (Botswana's native languages include Tswana, Kalanga, Kgalagadi, Shona, Tshwa, Mbukushu, Ndebele, !Xoo and more ...) and teachers for the most part teach to the national exams using the lecture method, while uniformed students dutifully make notes in tidy handwriting. There is a severity in the manner of some teachers that I believe discourages student risk-taking and participation, along with the threat of physical punishment by stick, which some teachers carry with them at all times. There is no data privacy regarding marks. Teachers return exams to learners in front of the entire class, praising and chastising as they work their way through the pile from the highest score to the lowest. Teaching is a physically and mentally challenging profession under the best of conditions. In Botswana public school teacher pay is low, expected overtime is high, resources are scanty, facilities are often dilapidated and opportunities for advancement are limited. It is easy to discern when a teacher has cultivated a more encouraging, active learning environment. The national syllabi content itself is engaging and I was able to listen in on discussions of global challenges, international organizations and gender disparities resulting from cultural practices. I enjoy learning how curriculum is situated in a Southern African and Botswana context. For example, on the list of global challenges learners were considering were HIV/AIDS, desertification, and corruption. A lesson on map reading used a topographic map of Zimbabwe. Student presentations on international organizations included SADC (the Southern African Development Community). Traditional Tswana cultural practices debated included bogadi (bride price), seantlo (practice whereby a widow marries her husband's younger brother) and the rarity of female chieftainship. The culminating activity in the Development Studies course at Naledi is project-based. After conducting a broad needs assessment of the school in teams, students propose hands-on improvement projects, solicit community bids, vote to narrow options, raise funds by selling snacks at school and implement the project. Past projects provided air conditioning for teacher offices, floor tile, whiteboards, computers and more. The class I visited had narrowed down their options to a LCD projector for the school assembly hall, a welcome board for the main entrance of the school and upholstered stools for a student common area. In addition to the two public schools, I also visited Maru-a-pula, considered one of Botswana's best private schools. Maru-a-pula prepares students in Forms 1-6 (equivalent in the U.S. system to grades 8 through 13) to take both the Cambridge International General Certificate of Education O-level and A-level exams. These exams are internationally accepted gateway exams to post-secondary education. The campus is leafy and pleasant with a relaxed classroom atmosphere and an emphasis on co-curricular service, physical education and arts activities. Students (68% Batswana, 32% international) are allowed to have mobile phones in class (not allowed in public schools) and the dress code is more relaxed. No uniform per se, but some sort of black bottom and white top. I was hosted by three members of the Geography Department (including a very generous-with-his-time Princeton in Africa Fellow) and observed three Geography and one Business class. In contrast to the public schools I visited, all teachers have laptops and classrooms have LCD projectors and air conditioning. The most interesting part of the day was a Q & A session with a class of Form 6 students. Several are hoping to attend university in the U.S. and had thoughtful questions about differences between the Botswana and U.S educational systems. This week I also met with Samuel from the Botswana Youth Empowerment Projects and look forward to more communication with this NGO in the future. On Friday I was back at the library with Banabakgwale Association for the weekly SDGs seminar for kids . Tebatso and Tevin brought the SDGs Board Game and we had fun playing the game with the kids, all while helping them practice and comprehend English as they read and responded to questions. No sweets this week, but fortunately I had a couple of inflatable globes in my backpack that we used for prizes!
In the sunshine and heat of Botswana, it is common to see people, especially women, walking with colorful umbrellas to block some of the sun's rays. This week I came out from under an umbrella because I finally have the magic research permit and am free to request visits to schools and interview people to my heart's content. On Tuesday I met with Jobe Kefaletse of the Ministry of Education and got a better feel for Social Studies education in Botswana. In Botswana, ten years of education are compulsory and school fees are required. The public school system consists of:
Visiting schools requires the research permit plus a letter of permission from the Ministry of Basic Education. This was procured on Thursday by walking 40 minutes to an office building on Main Mall and waiting in a very hot and stuffy hallway for an hour until a nice man perused my newly minted research permit and all of its accompanying forms and typed a letter for me on his laptop. The expected protocol is that you just show up at the school with the letter. Fortunately I have contact info for the teachers I met at the Social Studies meeting last week so I have connected with two of them to make arrangements for the coming week. UB will be on spring break, so no classes, and I can use the time to visit schools. On Friday afternoon I once again returned to the Gaborone Public Library for the SDGs seminar for kids sponsored by Banabakgwale Association. No seminar this week as Tebatso had some other pressing matters to work on, but I was able to meet his Banabakgwale partner Motheo and talk more about potentially connecting Batswana youth with U.S. youth to dialogue about sustainable development topics. They are planning a World ICT Day event in May at a Junior Secondary School in Tebatso's home village of Gabane and invited me to be a part of that event. Tebatso also formally introduced me to the Senior Librarian. I showed her the magic research permit, her demeanor flipped 180 degrees from skeptical to helpful and before you know it I was on the phone with her contact Samuel from the Botswana Youth Empowerment Projects setting up a phone conference next week. She and I also talked with Tebatso about a grant he is applying for to create an outdoor space for kids at the library and the possibility of connecting with the Botswana Book Project to add some new children's books on Sustainable Development Goal related topics. Lots of brainstorming at this point, so we shall see which plans come to fruition!
This week I continued to battle information gaps, communication barriers and bureaucracy to obtain the elusive research permit that will allow me permission not only to visit public schools and survey students (as I thought until this week), but is actually required for me to legally talk to anyone in a substantive manner about my Inquiry Project (big oops). Thank you to Fulbright support staff Leah, Vachel and Naomi for stepping in and trying to move things forward. It's been a lonely slog and a little shoring up was needed. Keeping my fingers crossed that I will have the permit early this week.
Rebecca Kubanji of the Population Studies Department arranged for and accompanied me to a meeting at the Botswana Ministry of Finance and Development Planning. We met with three representatives of the Population and Development Coordination Section. This section is responsible for helping to create and disseminate public information about both the demographic dividend and the Sustainable Development Goals. Our conversation included several key topics: high youth unemployment, HIV/AIDS, regional disparities in fertility rates, continuing high maternal mortality rates despite good health care access and human-wildlife conflict. The major news story of the week was a call for discussion of lifting a 2014 ban on elephant hunting. Diamond mining and safari tourism are Botswana's major sources of income and wildlife conservation has traditionally been prioritized. Some rural communities resent the loss of income from trophy hunting and have experienced crop loss, property destruction, and human deaths from elephants. Elephants are travelling further from their traditional habitat areas and closer to urban areas. President Masisi is standing for election in October 2019 and trying to walk a fine line between all the competing interests. Fulbrighters on the UB campus (four of us, as Tess is travelling, the other three are college professors) and U.S. Embassy Fulbright staff were invited to a meeting with UB Vice Chancellor David Morris and his staff. We summarized our projects and experiences thus far at the university. The professors suggested establishing a core curriculum to shore up humanities enrollment in the face of a STEM emphasis, integrating Zoom video conferencing technology into the new online nursing program and streamlining the course registration process for students. The UB campus has capacity for 18,000 students but currently enrolls only 12,000. The Vice Chancellor hopes to increase enrollment, in part by attracting more foreign students and increasing online enrollment opportunities. Thursday and Friday were fun days spent at a workshop of warm, welcoming Social Studies teachers who serve on the Social Studies Standing Committee revising the national syllabus for Senior Secondary Social Studies. Their task is to transform the curriculum framework from content-based to outcome-based. I listened in and contributed what I could to large and small group discussions on Thursday and was then asked to present to the group for about 30 minutes on Friday. At the suggestion of Jobe Kefaletse, the Ministry of Education Social Studies Specialist who invited me and led the workshop, I quickly prepared a presentation on 5 Free Technology Tools for Teachers. I'll have a one-on-one meeting with Mr. Kefaletse this week to learn more about Social Studies curriculum in Botswana. I had noticed that the college students in my Demography of Botswana class were struggling to be in the same place at the same time so they could work on a group presentation profiling the demographics of a local village. I helped a group I am shadowing get set up with Google accounts and Google Slides so they could work collaboratively from a distance. I'll be interested to see their progress tomorrow. They were off to a slow start deciding how to tackle the project and distribute the labor. For the presentation to Social Studies teachers, I included an introduction to Google Tools (Docs, Slides and Sheets) then added Quizlet, Quizizz, Padlet and Flipgrid. We played a game of Population Geography Quizlet Live as a group (they loved it) and attempted Flipgrid, but only Mr. Kefaletse was able to access Flipgrid from his laptop. Teachers had access issues not because of a lack of fast wifi at the hotel meeting site (my laptop worked great), but because the device they were using, be it a phone, tablet or laptop, was too old or slow. I have a feeling this is the same technology issue I will see when I visit public schools. Daisy, one of the Social Studies teachers at the workshop, invited me to go to church with her today. Hill View church meets at Riverwalk Mall, near my apartment, in one of the movie theaters. How do I describe the service? Born-again Christian rock and roll? Definitely a lot of togetherness. |
About MeA 9th grade AP Human Geography and Global Studies teacher at Stillwater Area High School in Stillwater, Minnesota, USA, living and learning in Gaborone, Botswana from January to June 2019 as a Fulbright Teacher. Archives
June 2019
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