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Attitudinal obstacles to curriculum and assessment reform

University of Botswana, Botswana, Nkosanal{at}mopopi.ub.bw

This paper first presents and then discusses the attitudes towards and perceptions of education officers regarding introducing a school-based continuous assessment of speaking in the Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) ESL examinations as provided for in the BGCSE English syllabus in Botswana. Three categories of education officers that are responsible for developing and evaluating syllabuses, teaching supervision (quality assurance), and assessment of the BGCSE ESL curriculum in senior secondary schools in Botswana were interviewed, using an interview guide. The findings indicate that there are two opposing views held by the various categories of education officers regarding the importance of speaking in English in the Botswana linguistic situation. While on the one hand Curriculum Development and Evaluation (CD & E) officers and Senior Education Officers (SEOs) generally regard English speaking in the Botswana linguistic situation to be just as important as reading or writing, Examinations, Research and Testing Division (ERTD) officers did not think that speaking in English was that important.

Key Words: assessment reform • communicative language teaching • curriculum reform • language proficiency • sociolinguistics • washback theory

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