CHAPTER 3: Challenges Facing Pupils and Staff at Botswana Community Junior Secondary: Schools The Student Teachers’ Perspective

I learned that there are many pupils with a multitude of special needs ranging from mild to severe such that a pupil cannot read and write and even copy what is written on the board. I also learned that the educational environment and home environment have a great influence on the pupils’ performance at school. I found out that those from poor backgrounds mostly never had time for school work as compared to their counterparts as they are always occupied by household chores. (Unless otherwise stated, all quotes in italics are feedback from pre-service teachers—quoted verbatim) The above reflection of a pre-service teacher neatly encapsulates many of the themes of this chapter. Issues of identification, the influence of the school and home environment, and the pernicious influence of poverty all come strongly to the forefront throughout this chapter. It is probably fair to say that the area of special education in Botswana remains underresearched, particularly with regard to the issues of engaging pupils with a variety of major support needs in mainstream schools. After a brief discussion of the Botswana context, this chapter analyzes data gathered from pre-service teachers on teaching practice in Botswana junior secondary schools (JSS) as part of their teaching practice assignment for their special needs education course at Molepolole College of Education (MCE), a college of education found 60 kilometers outside of the capital city, Gaborone. The assignment guides the pre-service teachers in considering the support needs of their classes and of particular individuals in those classes, as well as an examination of the response of the school to these children in terms of attitudes, methods, resources, structures, and policies. This chapter draws upon their collective feedback and analyzes it using quantitative and qualitative methods in order to give an overview of the sorts of challenges to teaching and learning that exist in Botswana JSS’s, which operate in a policy framework that is broadly aimed at being inclusive. Issues around identification, teacher attitude, skills and knowledge, and the importance of taking into account cultural contexts are highlighted.