Impact of Covid-19 on Early Childhood Education in Botswana
Abstract
This paper examined the impact of COVID-19 on the Botswana public Early Childhood Education Programme during the pandemic in the period of 2019 - 2022. COVID-19 impacted various sectors of Botswana, the education sector included. However, the education system was not adequately prepared to cater for young learners’ education and therefore this had serious consequences on the lower levels of learning. The study adopted the qualitative approach and used the chaotic theory to guide the line of argument in the paper. Data were collected using open-ended questionnaires, structured interviews, focus group discussions and observation of outside equipment. The findings indicated a backlog of pupils entering the Early Childhood Education programme and Standard One after the Covid-19 pandemic. Standard One accepted learners of different competencies and parents refused to send their students back to school after re-opening because of fear of reinfection. The paper concludes that the Ministry of Education, like other levels of education, could have put something in place for ECE learners to keep on learning at home during the pandemic after three years of suspending teaching and learning
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