Assessing technology education in Botswana Junior Secondary Curriculum: case study of teachers' classroom practices

In1992 the Government of Botswana set up a National Commission on Education (NCE) to review Botswana’s education system, and subsequently produced the Revised National Policy in Education. It suggested a move towards a more pre-vocational and practical orientation for all subjects, and proposed that education should be related to the world of work and promote skills such as problem solving, teamwork, computing, critical thinking and interpersonal skills. The policy raised the status of design and technology to one of the eight core subjects. It is to this end that the three-year design and technology Junior Certificate Programme was developed. The three year programme presents critical assessment challenges to teachers, starting (in the 1st year) with ‘inward facing’ formative priorities and developing (by the 3rd year) ‘outward facing’ summative certification priorities. These assessment concerns are the subject of this case study