University Botswana Journals
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PRACTICAL PERFORMANCE AS A PREDICTOR OF THEORY IN BOTSWANA JUNIOR CERTIFICATE AGRICULTURE
Get PDFStudents’ performance has shown a decline in several subjects in Botswana schools, while in Agricultural education, the decline has become consistent at all levels of education. This study assessed the predictive validity of students’ performance in practical based assessments and their performance in theory, a national standardized graded examination. A quantitative correlational design was adopted to assess the relationship between students’ performance in practical and their performance in theory from (N =156239) students who sat for 2014-2017 Final Junior Certificate Examinations in Agriculture. A simple regression analysis results showed that students’ performance in practicals significantly predicted their performance in theory showing that students’ performance in practical examinations play an important role in predicting their performance in theory. Findings of this study can be used as a point of reference by the Ministry of Basic Education to revisit the assessment of practical subjects such as Agriculture with a view to align them with the national long-term vision, goals and strategies
DIGITAL QUESTION BANKING: A COMPARISON OF MANUAL AND ELECTRONIC QUESTION PAPER DEVELOPMENT
Get PDFEducational assessors are adopting automated test development tools to reduce examination paper leakages and to increase efficiency in their work. In this regard, the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC) has adopted the Grademaker, a digital Item bank. This study adopted an experimental design approach to review the efficiency of the software in comparison with an existing manual development process. The intervention was then evaluated to test its effectiveness in solving the problem during which time pertinent observations were made in various forms. Instruments used to collect data were questionnaires and interviews. Subject managers at ZIMSEC, Item writers, Vetters and Proof readers were the main respondents in this survey. Results show that electronic systems are user friendly, interactive and more secure because they have security features that ensure the security of Question papers and non-leakage. The tracker within the software ensures that papers are not predictable from one year to another. They are also friendly to the environment by reducing the amount of paper used. This study recommends that examination boards adopt the technology to ensure credibility of examinations. Manual systems are easier to use but require more manpower
A POSSIBLE MEASURE FOR ENSURING QUALITY PROVISION IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN BOTSWANA
Get PDFThis study sought to consider issues of accreditation to try and argue for the introduction of a model in ECE as a measure of ensuring quality provision. The article is a document analysis study and starts by defining accreditation and what is entailed in the accreditation process. It further presents the benefits of accreditation and goes on to deliberate on possible features of an accreditation model that could be suitable for ECE programs in Botswana
IN SEARCH OF THE NATION: A READING OF FEMI OSOFISAN’S ESU AND THE VAGABOND MINSTRELS
Get PDFFemi Osofisan’s thematic focus in his plays is the social criticism of corruption, maladministration and inequity in his immediate society, Nigeria. Esu and the vagabond minstrels is one of such plays. The play’s thematic focus is on corruption and inhumanity which characterise the postcolonial Nigerian society. This paper adopts Social Reader-Response Theory, which underlines readers’ ideological predisposition as influenced by the chosen interpretive strategy, to critique the play. The plot and subject matter reveal that Osofisan writes the play from the political history of the country in the 80’s. The play’s reference to Nigeria’s military coup of 1983 is established with the dialogue of the vagabond minstrels and the contractors who fail to deliver the rice that was paid for by the overthrown civilian government. The play, perhaps, aims to raise the consciousness of Nigerians on the view that humanity can be sustained by compassion and sincerity of purpose in dealing with fellow human beings as demonstrated by Omele in the play. In the search for an ideal nation, individuals and groups across all the ethnic nationalities need to think critically to know where things have gone wrong in the country instead of fishing in the troubled waters of the country's socio-political and economic challenges
The Botswana – South Africa Extradition Deadlock – Escaping Botswana’s Gallows
Get PDFBotswana, unlike its economically more powerful neighbour, South Africa, retains capital punishment, (death by hanging), for the crime of murder where no extenuating circumstances are found. Presumably fearing the imposition of this penalty, individuals charged with murder in some cases cross the border into South Africa. According to South African law, an individual can only be extradited from South Africa to a country that imposes the death penalty when the country has given an undertaking that the death penalty will not be imposed or, if imposed, will not be carried out. Botswana refuses to give the undertaking. Applying both its domestic law and treaty right, South Africa refuses to extradite. This is the Botswana – South Africa extradition deadlock, which has reared its head in at least two notable cases, hereinafter referred to as Tsebe and Samotse cases. This paper reviews and discusses the Botswana Extradition Act of 1990; decisions in the Tsebe and Samotse cases; and proposes solutions to unlock the Botswana – South Africa extradition deadlock
Renaissance, creativity and the refractive aesthetics of African literature
Get PDF“Renaissance” has come up for scrutiny in African political and literary discourse in recent times, sown, as it appears to have been, as a discursive seed in a mutant twenty first century chronological and topographical setting. The exciting paradox of the play of presence and absence in a controversial nursery bed of connotative and denotative instabilities makes this renascent linguistic seed simultaneously dud and viable. The historicity of the term as a specific archaic centenary experience in certain parts of the world makes it potentially semantically dynamic. Its suggestion of a resurgence of interest in some areas of cultural life renders it suspect or simply ontologically unviable. Renaissance then morphs appropriately into yet another signifier and linguistic counter and, as sign, is permanently detached from verifiable signified in a postmodern construct. Cultural creativity in Africa as elsewhere is expectedly an activity of civility, a vocation of nobility, but which in many parts continues to be savaged ever so tirelessly by tyranny and crass insensitivity. Nevertheless, humane artistry in the wider socio-cultural sphere outmatches the political elite’s tendency to dissipation. The notional prism of critical mediation in the transformation from conventional to radical, owing to the twentieth century revolutionary insights of modern linguistics, has turned opaque with a refractive aesthetic regimens of a new kind of licence that is named “theory” and is viewed with increasing suspicion in some quarters as a supplant of age-old “poetic licence”. Further supplants have presented at fundamental levels in the relationships which subtend between cultural components that are informed and inscribed by different notions of “African literature”. This article attempts a reflection, using the trope of a prism, on some conflictive renascent ideas – positive and negative – in the aesthetic conundrum of signifier/signified in African literature.  
THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF COMMUNITY-HOME-BASED CARE IN BOTSWANA: THE SITUATION OF ELECTED FAMILIES IN THE CAPITAL CITY
Get PDFCommunity home based care in Botswana was established at the height of the HIV and AIDS crisis when the hospitals were not able to absorb all patients. However, with the passage of time, community home based care needs to re-focus so it addresses emerging needs. The case studies presented in this paper were compiled from undergraduate nursing students’ placement in and around the main city in Botswana. The attachment helped the students to learn the role of a nurse in the promotion of health, prevention of illnesses, and in the continuity of care for discharged patients. The case studies provide exemplars for the epidemiologic and demographic transitions in community-home-based care and sensitize health care providers, policy makers and researchers on how the needs of clients have evolved overtime and the implications of such evolution for policy, program, research, and curriculum
Youth and environmentally responsible consumer behaviour: The case of plastic bag usage in Botswana
Get PDFPlastic bags are versatile, lightweight and flexible, and this has led to consumers having an insatiable appetite for the consumption of plastic shopping bags. To influence consumer behaviour, the Government of Botswana introduced a plastic bag levy. This study analyses the use of plastic bags among the youth of Botswana in order to determine the youth’s willingness to pay (WTP) for continued plastic bag usage and their willingness to accept (WTA) to shift to eco-friendly alternatives. The results build on and extend previous research on plastic bag utilisation using Maun and Gaborone as case studies. This study shows that the majority of the youth purchase plastic bags frequently and are more willing to pay for the bags than to accept to shift to eco-friendly alternatives. The willingness to pay for a plastic bag decreases as the price increases. This study concludes that the plastic levy should not be seen as an end in itself, but a means to an end. It should be used to increase environmental awareness, promote recycling and encourage a shift to eco-friendly alternatives, especially when it is coupled with public education