Botswana: Tonota District Children’s Consultative Forum (DCCF) hosted a meeting with their counterparts in other districts. The officials have shared that the meeting was hosted in a virtual setting of Saturday
The meeting was convened as a precursor to the Universal Children’s Day/World Children’s Day (WCD) celebrations. The organization will be joining the rest of the world for the celebration on 17th November 2024 at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.
The officials have shared some images from the meeting on their social media. They discussed the details of the upcoming event, which will be hosted over three months later in thee honor of the children of the nation.
The officials have shared that the year’s WCD theme is focused on education. Further, they want to prompt DCCF members to engage in discussions about various aspects of the educational system.
The virtual meeting highlighted critical issues related to education, including its relevance, inclusivity, and quality. The education stakeholders of Botswana have been working hard to make education more inclusive for learners across the nation
A key concern that the attendants of the meeting raised across all districts was the lack of inclusiveness for disabled learners. They claimed that the members of the community have witnessed some gaps in this regard in the current educational framework.
Participants of the meeting argued that some subjects and topics in the curriculum are irrelevant and may not benefit students in their future endeavours. Furthermore, the quality of education was identified as being compromised by student teacher ratio.
The teachers are forced to work in double shifts in some schools and the lack of adequate infrastructure is also compromising the quality of education in the community.
The members who attended the meeting were asked to form thematic working groups in their respective areas. These groups will focus on Education, Health, Child Justice, Climate Change, Disability, and protection.
The groups will as such work on addressing and enhancing these critical areas for the people of the nation. The meeting also included a session on ending violence against children. DCCF members were encouraged to study and understand the issue of child violence and to propose improvements to existing measures designed to combat it.