Mathematics Curriculum Reforms in Botswana: An Historical Perspective

The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze curriculum reforms that have occurred in mathematics education in Botswana. Botswana, a former British Protectorate adopted British mathematics curriculum for over eighty one years. At the pre-independence period, mathematics curriculum offered in Botswana schools was predominantly arithmetic at the primary level of education, arithmetic, algebra, geometry and trigonometry at the junior and senior secondary levels of education. These mathematics curricula were called traditional mathematics. However, there were some senior secondary schools which offered calculus as part of their mathematics curriculum, but the calculus paper was optional.

When Britain introduced modern mathematics in its schools in 1960, Botswana remained offering traditional mathematics in its schools. However, at the post independent period, Botswana introduced modern mathematics in its schools, beginning with junior secondary schools in 1968, then primary schools in 1979 and senior secondary schools in 1971.

The reasons advanced for introducing modern mathematics in schools was that traditional mathematics emphasized computational skills while modern mathematics emphasized problem solving skills which are skills required for use in the 21^st century. In 1981, it was found that modern mathematics was lacking computational skills and it was agreed that a mathematics curriculum which encompasses both traditional and modern mathematics concepts would be the appropriate curriculum for Botswana. Consequently, a mathematics curriculum relevant and meaningful to learners was introduced in Botswana. When all the changes or adoptions were done, the curricula were benchmarked against that of Britain, the argument being that Botswana mathematic curricula would be of high standard and would be internationally recognized. Today mathematics curricula comply with UNESCO’s philosophy of ‘Education For All but are of high quality. Teachers are now involved in the development of mathematics curriculum and this would help them implement it with maximum effort because they own it.

In conclusion, it is recommended that the participatory model of curriculum development be used when developing curricula to give all teachers an opportunity to make contributions which could lead to quality mathematics education for Botswana.