A Botswana Examinations Council (BEC) report reveals that academic performance in the 2024 Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) results remained stagnant compared to 2023, despite increased government investment in education.
Out of the 36,000 candidates who sat for the exams, only a third achieved a grade C or better, mirroring the 32 percent pass rate recorded in 2023.
According to BEC, 6,521 candidates (27.2 percent) obtained 36 points or more in 2024, slightly down from 27.4 percent in the previous year. Government sponsorship for tertiary education is only granted to candidates who score at least 36 points.
This stagnation in academic performance is concerning, especially given the significant financial resources allocated to the education sector. During the 2024/2025 financial year, the Ministry of Education and Skills Development received the largest share of the ministerial recurrent budget, amounting to P15.54 billion—24.4 percent of the total recurrent budget. This marked an increase of P500 million from the previous year’s allocation of P15.04 billion. The funds were partly intended to enhance curriculum development and improve the knowledge and skills of learners.
Concerns over quality of Botswana’s future workforce
The lack of improvement in BGCSE results raises concerns about the quality of Botswana’s future workforce and its implications for unemployment. According to the Quarterly Multi-Topic Survey (QMTS) Labour Force Module for Q1 2024, the employed population (aged 15 and above) decreased by 4.4 percent between Q3 2023 and Q1 2024, from 788,616 to 754,147 persons. Over the same period, unemployment rose by 4.3 percent, from 275,159 to 287,059 persons.
Youth unemployment also increased, with the rate rising from 34.4 percent in Q3 2023 to 38.2 percent in Q1 2024. The overall unemployment rate for persons aged 15 and above increased by 1.7 percentage points, from 25.9 percent to 27.6 percent. Additionally, the extended unemployment rate, which includes those willing to work but not actively seeking jobs, rise from 31.2 percent to 32.5 percent.
Current curriculum for stifling talent
The Botswana Federation of Public, Private & Parastatal Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) has expressed concern over the declining quality of basic education in the country. “The future supply of labour will be narrowed, but we aren’t hopeless,” said BOFEPUSU Secretary General Robert Rabasimane in an interview. He criticized the current curriculum for stifling talent by focusing on standardized testing rather than nurturing individual skills and talents.
Rabasimane identified several challenges contributing to the education system’s struggles, including poor working conditions for teachers, dilapidated facilities, and inadequate teaching materials. He also highlighted the controversial implementation of outcome-based education, which has been plagued by a lack of clear policy direction and insufficient resources.
“In many educational facilities, there are inefficient resources to carry out skills development projects intended by the policy, and this has handicapped the learning process,” Rabasimane said. He called for increased resourcing of schools, modernization of the education system, and a major curriculum reform to assess student capabilities from an early age, including extracurricular activities.
Professor Motsomi Marobela of the University of Botswana echoed these concerns, stating that the BGCSE results reflect broader societal issues. “Over the years, we have seen a noticeable degradation of education across the country at all levels,” he said. “It is a huge problem which is multisectoral. These results are a reflection of our society.”
Marobela pointed to socio-economic challenges such as poverty, unemployment, and inequality as significant factors affecting education. He also criticised the frequent changes in curriculum, which have created confusion and compromised learning. “Curriculums have been designed, introduced, discontinued, and re-introduced without considering that schools have to adapt and teachers need time to master contents and delivery,” he said.
The professor warned that the education system’s decline is already impacting tertiary institutions, with many students struggling to cope with university-level coursework. He emphasized that employers must take responsibility for providing on-the-job training to bridge the gap between graduates’ qualifications and industry skills.
Overhauling the education system
Last month, Minister of Child Welfare and Basic Education Nono Kgafela-Mokoka announced plans to overhaul the education system. She emphasized the need to reorient education toward future skills, enhance teacher training, and implement performance management systems to improve instruction quality.
“We are committed to bringing strategies that will chart a way forward in ensuring that the quality of education is improved in its entirety,” Kgafela-Mokoka said. She highlighted the importance of introducing scheme education from early childhood to promote critical thinking, problem-solving, and innovation skills.
For the 2025/2026 financial year, Parliament has approved a budget of P12.5 billion for the Ministry of Child Welfare and Basic Education, with P11.7 billion allocated to the recurrent budget and P828.6 million to development projects.
Local Institutions Continue To Produce Graduates In Redundant Fields
Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA) is struggling to fulfill its mandate of aligning educational curricula with the current and future needs of the economy due to an insufficient workforce, according to the Minister of Higher Education, Honorable Prince Maele. This shortfall is causing labor market congestion and hindering human capital development, as local institutions continue to produce graduates in redundant fields.
Speaking to Parliament, Maele attributed the labor market congestion to the BQA’s inability to enforce quality control effectively. He explained that while the BQA conducts periodic reviews to ensure compliance by local institutions, the lack of manpower has made it difficult to hold these institutions accountable. This gap has allowed local institutions to produce graduates in fields that are already saturated, exacerbating unemployment and underemployment.
To address these challenges, the BQA has developed the National Credit and Qualifications Framework (NCQF). This framework is designed to ensure that educational institutions are responsive to changing industry needs. It serves as a roadmap for local institutions in formulating curricula and mandates that they provide a rationale for the relevance of the qualifications they develop. Institutions must also obtain endorsement from relevant professional bodies before submitting qualifications for registration, ensuring that training standards and curricula align with industry practice standards.
Universities Establishing Quality Assurance Process
In an interview with this publication, Aravinda Ram, Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor at Botho University, highlighted the institution’s efforts to ensure industry relevance in its programs. Ram explained that Botho University has a robust assessment design to evaluate the alignment of its programs with industry needs. The curriculum development process involves active industry consultation through market surveys, expert reviewers, industry reference forums, employer feedback, and alignment with the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) skills demand.
Ram emphasised that Botho University has established a quality assurance process that serves as a benchmark for evaluating programs. “Periodic reviews are done at the end of every semester (every six months) to ensure the alignment of courses with the latest industry trends. These reviews are a structured process that includes feedback from industry through market research, industry reviews, industry reference forums, employer feedback during internships and dual studies, tracer studies, and more,” Ram stated.
Despite these efforts by institutions like Botho University, the broader challenge lies in the BQA’s capacity to enforce compliance across all local institutions. The BQA’s insufficient workforce has created gaps in oversight, allowing some institutions to operate without adequate accountability. This has led to a mismatch between the skills produced by educational institutions and the needs of the labor market, contributing to unemployment and underemployment.
The Minister of Higher Education has called for increased support and resources for the BQA to strengthen its capacity to enforce quality control and ensure that educational institutions are producing graduates with skills that meet the demands of the economy. Without such measures, the labor market congestion is likely to persist, hindering Botswana’s human capital development and economic growth.
