Early Childhood Care and Education Programs in Botswana: Policy (2001) Implementation

Early Childhood Care and Education Programs in Botswana: Policy (2001) Implementation

In an effort to implement the recommendations of the 1 994 Revised National Policy on Education (RNPE) (Republic of Botswana, 1994) and to fulfill the aspirations of Vision 201 6 (Republic of Botswana, 1 997), Early Childhood Care and Education (ECC&E) Policy was released in 2001 in Botswana. After five years of operation it became imperative to review the status of the ECCE programs in terms of adherence to the stipulated policy requirements and maintenance of quality standards. Hence a study funded by the Office of Research and Development (ORD), University of Botswana (UB) was conducted in the southern part of Botswana which has the highest concentration of various types of ECCE programs. The study was conducted in two phases the first covering the heads and teachers of the ECCE centres while the second phase included the ECCE Policy Stake Holders (EPSH) of Botswana. The present paper concentrates on the second part covering the important EPSH who are responsible for the implementation of the policy. In doing the research, a structured interview schedule was used. The data was analyzed qualitatively. The findings showed that there is an increased participation in child care provision, education and registration of ECCE centres (Republic of Botswana, 2006-b); thus the existing centres do adhere to the ECCE policy requirements to a certain extent. However greater efforts are required to ensure an effective implementation of the 2001 ECCE policy and to raise the quality and proper delivery of ECCE programs in Botswana.