Issues of equality and equity in education - the fate of minority languages in Botswana

Abstract

If a consideration is made about language as a human right, the right to learn in one’s language becomes critical. Indeed, issues of equality and equity in education are subsumed in many policies and laws that define the education of a nation. Education therefore concerns itself with the societal knowledge systems and values that derive from its culture and the world. Philosophies of education, especially those that define it as culture-based holistic process, view education as concerned with the representation of self in learning and how that self-integrates in a meaningful and harmonious way in the socio-economic and national processes. If in Botswana there is equal access, there is no equity in access. Equality as expressed in Botswana is vague and a less effective means to achieve equity in learning. This is so because the current system operates under the generalization of the philosophy of homogeneity which benefits the majority and the powerful. When minority language speakers, such as the San, are considered, they suffer marginalization and irrelevance of educational values, at least at the formative stage of schooling. Issues of mother tongue education, culture-infused curriculum, and teacher training which take into account the social realities of inequities can enhance equity, self-actualization, mutual responsibility and common belongingness in Botswana. A worthwhile education should therefore underscore values that bring about positive development of the self, democracy, self-reliance and cherishing of unity in diversity.