08.P0220 Ministry of Education - Life Skills

In this activity, USG will continue to support the MOE to roll out its new "life skills" materials to schools

through out the country.

For four years, USG has collaborated with the MOE to develop and implement a state-of-the-art HIV

prevention curriculum for use in all public schools in the country. To date, five sets of materials are ready,

one each for ages 6-7, ages 8-9 (lower primary), ages 10-12 (upper primary), ages 13-15 (junior

secondary), ages 16-18 (senior secondary). Materials for ages 8-9 are printed and distributed to all primary

schools across the country. Materials for upper primary are being printed, and the Ministry is preparing

tenders for the printing of the secondary school level materials. Over 200 teachers have been trained as

master trainers to support a cascade of trainings on the materials through the education system, and the

Ministry conducted a baseline survey for future evaluation purposes, which has not been disseminated.

USG will soon hire an outside agency to assist the MOE with all aspects implementation.

In 2008, USG will continue to support teacher training and printing of materials. The Ministry will support an

outside agency to help train additional master trainers and support the training cascade. The Ministry also

will print and distribute the last batch of materials, those for the youngest learners in standards 1-2 (students

age 6-7): 110,000 student workbooks and 3800 teacher guides.

The Ministry also will begin to explore adaptation of the materials to special needs learners, by convening a

task team of teachers of special needs learners. The GOB will pay for the actual adaptation process, which

may happen next year.

The Ministry has identified additional staff to support the life skills curriculum, and the Ministry will support

the training of two of those project officers on Life skills and BCC/Project management to improve their

knowledge and skills.

08.C0807 MOE - OVC Circles of Support

The number of orphans in Botswana has significantly increased, due to the high HIV prevalence, adding to

the large numbers of other vulnerable children. This has resulted in highly stretched community and family

capacities to cope. It is noted that most of the OVC fall in the school going age, and there is evidence that

more and more children are unable to attend schools or do not have access to education due to being an

OVC. Child neglect, delays in the delivery of school uniforms, orphan exploitation and violence against

children all contribute to denying access to education. For example, some children are forced to drop out of

school to take care of their younger siblings. Other negative effects may include death of a caregiver which

may result in serious psychological effects on a child.

Findings from the evaluation of the STPA reports that provision of psychosocial support services for

orphans is lagging compared to other areas such as provision of food supplies. The gaps in meeting the

psychosocial needs of the child and in ensuring access to education can be addressed through the Circles

of Support program. This involves the identification of the resources available for the different roles in the

community and provision of an enabling environment to afford children the most needed support, in the

most humane way possible.

2007 accomplishments

The Circles of Support for OVC concept is a community and school-based multi-sectoral approach to

meeting the needs of OVC. It aims at strengthening schools and community based networks and systems

that provide the basic needs, including psychosocial needs of children of school going age who have lost

their parents or are in difficult circumstances. Its main focus is to facilitate linkages in the local network of

support to retain OVC in the school system and assist those who have dropped out to re-enter the school

system.

The MOE will be working closely with MLG's DSS, and civil and CBOs. All service providers who care for

OVC will be brought together so as to ensure that each plays a complementary role in ensuring that OVC

remain within the school system and achieve their potential.

The Institute for Development and Management (IDM) trained 22 Regional Education Officers as master

trainers and 31 teachers' as Training of Trainers (ToTs) in 2006 and 2007.

The Circles of Support program was rolled out to 250 primary and secondary schools in the Education

Regions of South, South Central and West in 2007.

2008 plans

The MOE through the HIV/AIDS Coordinating Office will be scaling up the Circles of Support for OVC

program to 300 primary and secondary schools in the Education Regions of: Central, North and the

remaining schools in the Education Regions of South, South Central and West that would not have been

covered in 2007.

For each implementing school, three members of staff (head teacher and two teachers) will be selected for

training. They will then form a committee referred to as School conveners. At community level, three

members drawn from Parents Teachers Association, Social and Community Development office will be

selected and trained. This group is will be referred to as community Neighborhood Agents. Training will also

cover NGOs working with schools on OVC issues. This will facilitate referrals of OVC to service providers of

such organizations as: Hope World Wide (HWW) Botswana based in Kweneng District, The Ark for

Children, Bana ba Keletso and Catholic Relief Services (CRS). The school conveners and the community

neighborhood agents will identify OVC eligible for the program.

Officers at the Ministry level will undertake monitoring visits to schools and track project progress. Master

training will be an on-going activity in FY08.