30 Mar 2025

The mother tongue teaching and learning policy started in 2023 with 170 primary schools and 13 languages, the Minister of Child Welfare and Basic Education, Ms Nono Kgafela-Mokoka has said. Responding to a parliamentary question on Friday, the minister said it was meant for students in pre-primary school up to Standard two. She said the mother tongue was used for explanation purposes and not as a subject. Ms Kgafela-Mokoka said teachers and teacher aides who were speakers of native languages were identified, trained and deployed, adding that if the school had someone speaking the native language, the teacher aide was then not deployed. She however said some teacher aides had not been trained due to financial constraints. The minister further said some none native speakers were engaged following the declaration that they were conversant with the language but during implementation, it was discovered that they had challenges and needed some training. She said there was also a problem of limited or lack of monitoring and evaluation of the programme due to funding, adding that generally, there were few teachers for the native languages. MP for Maun West, Mr Caterpillar Hikuama had asked the minister to give an update on the implementation of the mother tongue teaching and learning policy. He further wanted to know the problems encountered on the implementation of the policy on the 10 approved local languages by the past administration. ENDS