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This study sought to find out if affirmative action is necessary in Botswana given the fact that various groups of people are being discriminated against in various ways. These groups of people include: ethnic minority groups, married women, and girls. The study answered various questions and addressed various objectives. The questions were: 1. Should minority languages be used to broadcast certain programmes in the national media such as national radio stations and the national television station? 2. Should minority languages be used in the print media to disseminate information of national importance? 3. Should minority languages be used as media of instruction in Botswana public primary and secondary schools? 4. Should neutral words be used to name land boards and the country Botswana instead of the use of names that promote the languages of the majority ethnic groups as it is currently the case? 5. Should the requirement that married women get the consent of their husbands to obtain loans from banks or when applying for plots (land) be discontinued? 6. Should cultures that promote the education for boys at the expense of education for girls discontinue the practice? 7. Should the number of women both in Parliament (National Assembly) and Councils be increased to ensure that women have more representations in these institutions? 8. Should all senior tribal authorities recognized by their tribes as chiefs be referred to as Paramount Chiefs so that the House of Chiefs become a non-discriminatory institution? 9. Based on the responses, what recommendations can you make that can be implemented to remedy the current situation in which minority languages are marginalized and discriminated against in broadcasting all the programmes on national radio stations and Botswana’s only television station? The objectives were: 1. To find out if the minority languages in Botswana should be used to broadcast certain programmes in the national media such as the national radio stations and the national television station. 2. To find out if minority languages should be used in the print media to disseminate information of national importance.3. To find out if minority languages should be used as media of instruction in Botswana public primary and secondary schools.4. To find out if neutral words should be used to name land boards and the country Botswana instead of the use of names that promote the languages of the majority ethnic groups as it is currently the case.5. To find out if the requirement that married women get the consent of their husbands to obtain loans from banks or when applying for plots (land) should be discontinued. 6. To find out if cultures that promote the education for boys at the expense of girls should discontinue the practice.7. To find out if the number of women both in Parliament (National Assembly) and Councils should be increased to ensure that women have more representations in these institutions/8. To find out if all senior tribal authorities recognized by their tribes as chiefs should be referred to as Paramount Chiefs so that the House of Chiefs becomes a non-discriminatory institution. 9. To determine recommendations that can be implemented to remedy the current situation in which minority languages are marginalized and discriminated against in as far as the national media is used in Botswana. The study intended to sample a reasonable number of students in a class of thirty-five (35). Questionnaires, which were the only data collection instrument used, were distributed to all students in class. Only four (4) students responded to the questionnaire. They therefore, formed the sample for the study. The study found that all the groups identified (ethnic minority groups, married women, and girls) were discriminated against in various ways by various groups of people in Botswana. As a result, affirmative action was found to be a necessary remedy to address the situation and various recommendations were identified to address specific situations. For example, on the issue of exclusion of minority ethnic groups’ languages with respect to their use in the national media, it was recommended that these languages be used in such media so that they are treated with equal dignity visa-a-vis the languages of majority ethnic groups.
Marang: Journal of Language and Literature
Democracy and the eductation system of Botswana: Towards linguistic pluralism2007 •
International Review of Education
An advocacy project for multicultural education: The case of the Shiyeyi language in Botswana2011 •
2012 •
Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies
Why is a gradual transition to Botswana’s languages in higher education necessary? How can it be achieved?2021 •
Where other authors have argued for the need for using indigenous languages in education in Botswana on human rights or efficiency grounds, this article argues for this need for economic reasons, in line with the country’s vision for 2036. Further increases in enrolment in higher education will mean that the country’s education system is stretched beyond its capacities, as shown by benchmarking Botswana’s educational system against that of Estonia’s. A transition towards indigenous languages is practical by using the proposed concepts of discerned and designed languages. However, it should be based on five key principles, which are introduced in the article. Based on a new discussion of ease and difficulty of language learning, these principles are applied to the Botswanan situation. The article concludes that Setswana could be developed as a medium of instruction for the great majority of people in Botswana, but that a special position is justified for the Khoisan languages. The article ends by suggesting a number of concrete steps that should be taken over the coming years in order to make such a transition a practical possibility.
African Study Monographs
Ambivalence Regarding Linguistic and Cultural Choices among Minority Language Speakers: A Case Study of the Khoesan Youth of Botswana2016 •
Due to their small numbers and historical domination by others, the Khoesan groups in the southern African region are among the most marginalized and endangered communities in Africa (Batibo, 1998; Chebanne & Nthapelelang, 2000; Smieja, 2003). This situation has also led to their linguistic and cultural domination and an associated dilemma: on the one hand, the speakers of these minority languages wish to use and safeguard their linguistic and cultural heritage and identity; on the other hand, they desire to use other languages to enable wider communication and socioeconomic advancement. This study examined this dilemma among Khoesan youth in three villages in the Central Kalahari and Ghanzi areas of western Botswana. The primary aim of the study was to determine the extent to which ambivalence regarding linguistic and cultural options has affected the use of, attitudes toward, and attachment to languages and identities. The study focused on two Khoesan languages: Naro, a Central Kh...
International Journal of Educational Development
Improving commitment to basic education for the minorities in Botswana: A challenge for policy and practice2008 •
Marang: Journal of Language and Literature
Investigating Language Vitality in Some Parts of North Eastern Botswana2017 •
The main objective of this article is to investigate the level of language vitality in Botswana on the basis of patterns of language use, transgenerational language transmission, language attitudes and ethno-cultural identity. We specifically look at the patterns of language use amongst six communities in north eastern Botswana, namely, Lesoma, Nata, Kachikau, Kazungula, Pandamatenga and Gweta. Our analysis draws insights from Fishman's (1991) Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (GIDS) and Lewis and Simons' (2009) Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS). Our results demonstrate language use preferences and how minority languages in Botswana are faring in relation to the national language (Setswana) and the de jure official language (English), and in relation to one another. In the main, our findings confirm previous impressionistic observations that Setswana dominates public, official and social domains while the ethno-linguistic vitality of community languages is very low because they have no official status, have limited intergenerational transmission and remain restricted to private domains like the home and cultural activities.
Clinical Transplantation
One-year protocol biopsies from ABO-incompatible renal allografts compared with a matched cohort of ABO-compatible allografts2015 •
Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture
Recovery and Indexing of Avocado Plants (Persea Americana) from Embryogenic Nucellar Cultures of an Avocado Sunblotch Viroid-Infected Tree2006 •
Journal of Geophysical Research
Physical and optical properties of mineral dust aerosol during the Dust and Biomass-burning Experiment2008 •
2001 •
Science
Obesity remodels activity and transcriptional state of a lateral hypothalamic brake on feeding2019 •
2020 •
Journal of Geodesy
Multi-technique comparisons of 10 years of wet delay estimates on the west coast of Sweden2011 •
ACM Transactions on Computational Logic
MSO definable string transductions and two-way finite-state transducers2001 •
2021 •
Jurnal Ilmiah Merpati (Menara Penelitian Akademika Teknologi Informasi)
Kajian Pendekatan Binary Log dalam Change Data Capture2017 •
American Journal of Life Sciences
Registration of “Haydaroo” Newly Released Emmer Wheat (Triticum dicoccum L.) Variety for Bale Highland Areas2017 •
Estudios de Asia y Africa
El enfoque hacia la aldea: una exploración sobre secta y comunidad en la India de hoy2006 •
RLA. Revista de lingüística teórica y aplicada
Aprendiendo a Argumentar: Análisis Del Uso De Marcas Enunciativas en Cartas Infantiles2011 •
arXiv (Cornell University)
A quest for a fair schedule: The Young Physicists' Tournament2020 •
The Florida AI Research Society
No peanut! Affective Cues for the Virtual Bartender2011 •
2009 •