Provision for Learners with Special Educational Needs in Botswana; a Situational Analysis.

This paper considers the support of children with special educational needs in Botswana. A variety of sources including policy documents, literature, statistical data, interviews with key personnel and observation, are used to analyse the context and delivery of provision.
Botswana is a middle-income country that has seen rapid economic expansion in a short period of time. Revenue has been used to expand the social sector including education. In the last decade HIV and AIDS has become a huge socio-economic challenge.
Attitudes towards people with disability appear to be changing to become more inclusive but there is still evidence that many are still on the fringes of society.
There are strong policy statements on the provision of special education. Policy has moved to an inclusive model but practise lags in the field.
Most provision for children with special educational needs is at units for particular categories of disability attached to ordinary schools. The majority of these are at primary schools. There is a drive to build support for pupils in the ordinary school and classroom. This is slow in developing but might speed up in the near future as all newly trained teachers now have elements of special needs education as part of their initial training.
Non-governmental organisations play a key role in pre school and vocational training for students with special needs and also in provision for hearing impairment. However they struggle with funding and staff training.
Issues of poor coordination between key stakeholders, a lack of curriculum development and a shortage of specialist staff all conspire to limit the effectiveness of provision. There have been a number of studies made that highlight these issues and suggest improvements that could be made.