Botswana secondary students' perceptions of the education/employment nexus

International Journal of Educational Development 21 (2001) 315–329www.elsevier.com/locate/ijedudev

Botswana secondary students’ perceptions of theeducation/employment nexus

Barend Vlaardingerbroek *

Department of Mathematics and Science Education, University of Botswana, Private Bag 0022, Gaborone, Botswana

Accepted 8 February 2000

Abstract

This paper arises from a study of final-year Botswanan junior and senior secondary school students’ perceptions ofthe education/employment nexus through the generation of peer reference groups and the soliciting of career aspirationsand income expectations. It was found that students generally had accurate perceptions of post-school prospects. Therewas an overwhelming desire at both levels to pursue tertiary education and training and enter secure professions whichit is argued relates to the awareness of the generally unattractive economic consequences of direct entry into the workforce, particularly for girls and junior secondary school leavers. The study is discussed in the context of current ‘worldof work’-oriented educational reforms and gender differences are highlighted. 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. Allrights reserved.

Keywords: Employment; Incomes; Expectations; Work force; Private sector; Botswana

1. Introduction

Many of the educational dysfunctions indeveloping societies are attributable to popular per-ceptions regarding the functions of formal school-ing as an entry to white-collar employment. Instru-mental in the formation and maintenance of thisview has been the reference group presented bycolonial and independence-era indigenous elites. Inthe absence of effective careers guidance, thisimage continues to promote unrealistic expec-tations amongst students and their families (Geo-

* Tel.: +267-355-2169; fax: +267-355-2847.E-mail address: [email protected](B. Vlaardingerbroek).

0738-0593/01/$ - see front matter 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.PII: S 07 38 -0593( 00 )0 0006-7

jaja, 1989; Knight and Sabot, 1990, p.38; Peil,1990; Prophet, 1990; Vlaardingerbroek, 1998a).

The Botswana school system exhibits a pri-mary:junior secondary:senior secondary 7:3:2 epi-cycle with theoretically universal access to 10years of basic education. The transition rate tosenior secondary school is about 30% and will beraised to 50% during the current National Develop-ment Plan period ending 2002/3. The system is cur-rently undergoing reform with a view to improvingthe efficiency of the nexus between schooling andthe ‘world of work’ (for background see Vlaardin-gerbroek 1998b, 1999). The principal objective ofthe reform process is to give curricula a pre-vocational emphasis with a view to instilling inyoung people skills and attitudes that are con-ducive to their gaining employment in the formal

316 B. Vlaardingerbroek / International Journal of Educational Development 21 (2001) 315–329

and informal sectors, the latter with specific refer-ence to self-employment (Ministry of Finance andDevelopment Planning, 1997, pp. 337, 357, 361,368). This move is largely a response to growingyouth unemployment (Department of Culture andSocial Welfare, 1996, pp. 17–18; but cf. Gunawar-dena, 1991).

Gender is strongly associated with young Bots-wanans’ aspirations; in spite of female enrolmentsat primary, secondary and university levels havingexceeded 50% of total enrolments by 1994, opport-unities for girls and women remain comparativelylimited and unemployment disproportionatelyaffects females (Department of Culture and SocialWelfare, 1996, pp. 6–7, 9, 20; Ministry of Financeand Development Planning, 1997, p. 343).

The importance of effective careers guidance isrecognised by the Botswana education authoritiesand the secondary curriculum includes one periodweekly of Guidance and Counselling, one quarterof which is devoted to “vocational life skills”. Thecurriculum guidelines specify that needs analysesbe used as the basis for the content of this pro-gramme, but very few teachers in charge of thisactivity are qualified in guidance and counselling.In December 1998, the Guidance and CounsellingDivision of the Ministry of Education’s Depart-ment of Curriculum Development began organis-ing and conducting regional ‘careers fairs’ in whichpublic and private sector employers are invited toparticipate (Naudi, personal communication; seeAcknowledgements). Junior secondary schoolteacher attitudes towards formal employment as apost-school destination were found to be generallynegative in a study of teacher views of the func-tions of schooling (Vlaardingerbroek, 1998b; seealso Middleton, 1988).

The general objective of the study was to gaugefinal-year junior secondary (Form 3) and seniorsecondary (Form 5) students’ perceptions of thelinkage between education and the ‘world of work’by compiling peer reference groups and solicitingstudents’ intentions and aspirations. An importantaspect of the study was students’ perceptions ofactual and expected eventual earnings, as a func-tion of reference group activities and their ownpost-school intentions, respectively. A secondaryemphasis was the association of these various per-

ceptions and aspirations with gender. The studywas confined to the Gaborone (capital city) areaas this is where the ‘money economy’ is the mosthighly developed.

2. Methods

Twelve junior secondary schools and six seniorsecondary schools in and around Gaborone werecontacted in May 1999 for permission to accesssamples of Form 3 and Form 5 students.

Written questionnaires were devised comprisingthe following:

� An introduction briefly explaining the purposeof the instrument and assuring anonymity.

� Personal variables: gender and age.� Reference group: students were asked to think

of some young people whom they knew well(family and close friends) who had left juniorsecondary school the previous year (for theForm 3 instrument) or had left senior secondaryschool at the end of 1997 (for the Form 5 instru-ment; to allow for one year of Tirelo Setshaba[community service] involvement which until1999 inclusive has been a prerequisite togovernment sponsorship for tertiary study).They were then asked to indicate the numberof those people, by gender, who were currentlyattending senior secondary school/about toattend university (for the Form 3/Form 5 instru-ments, respectively), attending or about toattend some other form of post-school training,engaged in full-time employment, engaged inpart-time employment, engaged in self-employ-ment, working for their families without formalremuneration (e.g., looking after family live-stock, housework), or “hanging around doingnothing”. With regard to post-school trainingalternatives, it should be noted that there arenow few institutions in Botswana that acceptjunior secondary school leavers other thanvocational centres; for senior secondary schoolleavers, there is a wider range of options includ-ing colleges of education, agricultural colleges,and colleges of health sciences. There is also

317B. Vlaardingerbroek / International Journal of Educational Development 21 (2001) 315–329

a thriving privately-operated training industry,particularly in secretarial and computer skills.

� Earning reference group: students were asked torecord what those people they had indicated asbeing in full-time, part-time or self-employmentwere doing and about how much they wereearning in Pula per month if known, by gender.(P=US22c at the time of the study).

� Aspirations: students were then asked to indi-cate what they expected to be doing in oneyear/two years time (for Form 3/Form 5,respectively), under the options of attendingsenior secondary school/attending university(Form 3/Form 5), attending some other post-school training, engaged in salaried employ-ment, engaged in self-employment, working fortheir family without pay, or “hanging arounddoing nothing”.

� Each student then had one more question toanswer depending on their answer to the pre-vious item. Form 3 students who had indicatedthat they intended attending senior secondaryschool were asked whether they thought theywould go to a tertiary institution after that. Bothgroups were asked what occupation they had inmind once they had finished all their training,and how much they expected to earn upon com-mencement of work. Students who had indi-cated the intention to attend some other post-school training were also asked what occupationthey had in mind and how much they expectedto earn afterwards. Students who had indicatedentering the work force (formal or informal)were asked what sort of job they had in mindand how much they expected to earn. Studentswho had indicated working for their familieswithout pay, or “hanging around doing nothing”as their likely future were asked how theyintended to make some money.

� Finally, students were invited to write down anyopinion they wished to share “about youngpeople, jobs and money” on the back of thequestionnaire form.

A reference group was generated by amalgamatingall student responses to the item concerning thefates of ex-students that they knew. There isundoubtedly a great deal of overlap amongst stud-

ent responses, with certain individuals likely tofeature in the reference group of several respon-dents. However, the reference group for this studyis not meant to function as a proxy tracer study ofschool leavers, but rather as an indication of thepeople who are taken notice of by youngsters intheir final year at junior or senior secondary school.The reference group is accordingly a compoundperceptual image rather than an ‘objective’ one.Each person alluded to will subsequently bereferred to as a reference unit.

Although the questionnaire was generally wellcomprehended by students even at the Form 3level, a significant number were submitted inincomplete form and/or with questionableinclusions. It was not possible to include someresponses concerning earnings, such as in-kindpayments (e.g., an ex-student now a herder whowill be paid a cow for his labour at the end ofthe year), and allusions to illegal activities werestudiously ignored (perfectly plausible as some ofthese were). Rather than eliminating all forms thatdid not precisely meet the researcher’s criteria, itwas decided to make use of all plausible data. Thisdecision was reinforced when it transpired that datapools for some subsamples, such as the self-employed reference subgroup, would have beenoverly impoverished by an elimination process.Given that some arbitrary decision had to be made,it was subsequently decided to not use inferentialstatistical analytical procedures.

The reference groups at Form 3 and Form 5level were collated both in their entirety and by thegender of reference units. These were furthermoredecomposed into boys’ and girls’ reference groups.Following a perusal of occupations reported, refer-ence units in salaried employment were classifiedunder the following:

For the Form 3 reference group:

� manual labour: all unskilled work such as physi-cal labour on construction sites, cleaning andkitchen duties. Fare-collecting in the privateminibuses that constitute Gaborone’s publictransport system was included, as was securitywork. Some semi-skilled work in trades wasalso put into this category.

� domestic: this category, consisting mainly of


house maids and so-called ‘garden boys’ (andone ‘garden girl’), was treated as a discrete unitbecause of its distinct economic nature in that itinvolves employment by private families ratherthan companies. It also often involves the pro-vision of accommodation and/or meals.

� retail: this category was used for all referenceunits employed by shops, petrol stations, and avariety of sales activities in the formal retail sec-tor.

The same categories were used for the Form 5 ref-erence group, with the addition of the following:

� army and police;� clerical and secretarial work;� education and health: reference units engaged

by these government departments to work asunqualified teachers and health workers.

Self-employed reference units were categorised asbeing involved in selling (e.g., food, trinkets), ser-vice activities (e.g., cutting hair, handymen), orother activities.

Average monthly earnings, where reported orestimated, were calculated by employment cate-gory, by reference unit gender and by respondentgender.

Proportions of respondents indicating each givenfuture intention were calculated. Ultimate careeraspirations were categorised and tabulated. Antici-pated eventual earnings were calculated by respon-dents’ future intention category.

Open responses were subjected to thematicanalysis.

3. Results and discussion

Six junior and two senior secondary schoolsoffered to participate in the study. The students for-ming the sample were accessed during afternoonstudy periods and were ‘talked through’ the ques-tionnaire by the researcher. The data collectionphase of the study took place in early to midJune 1999.

3.1. The form 3 sample

The junior secondary sample consisted of 283students with an average age of 16.5 years (n=267).The age range was 13–20 but the standard devi-ation was only one year.

Eighty-five students responded to the invitationto share their views on the broad issue of “youngpeople, jobs and money”. The most commontheme, explicitly or implicitly stated in 32 of these,was that of the causal link between education andthe quality of life through earnings. Social ills aris-ing from unemployment were alluded to by adozen respondents. Fifteen students called forviable alternatives to senior secondary school forthose who did not gain entry to that level, whileanother seven called for job creation to absorb jun-ior secondary school ‘failures’. Specific commentswill be quoted in the ensuing discussion.

A total reference group of 4,421 reference units(2,299 males and 2,122 females) was generated,the activities of which are summarised in Table 1.About half (49%) were engaged in further study,mostly at senior secondary school (38%), for whichlevel of schooling there was a slight gender bias infavour of females (40% vs 35% for male referenceunits). These figures are a little high given theactual transition rate, although an urban bias forthis rate is quite likely. Twenty-two percent of thereference group were engaged in employmentactivities, spread roughly equally across full-time,part-time and self-employment. There was a slightgender bias in favour of males for this category(23% vs 20%). The remainder (29%) of the refer-ence group was in the second largest subcategory,viz “hanging around doing nothing” (21%), with amale bias (23% vs 19%). Table 2 compares thereference groups generated by boys and girls.Female reference units attending senior secondaryschool were markedly more prominent in girls’perceptions than they were in boys’ (43% vs 37%),while female reference units engaged in employ-ment activities featured comparatively lowly ingirls’ perceptions at 18%. The same was the casefor girls’ perceptions of female reference units“hanging around doing nothing”, also at 18%.

Table 3 presents the specific activities engagedin by employed reference units, who were over-


Table 1Reference group generated by junior secondary students with division by gender (n=4,421 of which 2,299 male and 2,122 femalereference units)

Activity Percent involvement of reference units

Whole group Male Female

Further study or training 49 47 52Attending senior secondary school 38 35 40Attending some other programme 11 11 11

Employment 22 23 20Full-time jobs 8 9 7Part-time jobs 7 8 6Self-employed 7 7 7

Neither of the above 29 30 28Working for family without pay 8 7 9“Hanging around doing nothing” 21 23 19

Table 2Reference groups generated by junior secondary boys and girls (boys reference group=2,081 of which 1,144 male and 937 femalereference units; girls’ reference group=2,340 of which 1,155 male and 1,185 female reference units)


Boys’ reference group Girls’ reference group

Male Female Male Female

Further study/training 46 48 48 55Attending senior secondary 34 37 36 43Other programme 11 11 12 12

Employment 23 22 23 18Full-time jobs 8 9 10 6Part-time jobs 7 7 8 6Self-employed 9 7 6 6

Neither 31 29 29 27Working for family 9 9 6 9“Hanging around” 22 21 23 18

whelmingly in the private sector. The most com-mon type of full-time work for the whole referencegroup was manual labour (51%), with a very stronggender bias towards males (69% vs 29% for femalereference units). For the female full-time employedreference units, the most common occupationalcategory was domestic at 53%. There was littlegender difference for reference units involved inthe retail sector (16%). For reference unitsinvolved in part-time work, manual labour anddomestic work were again the most common occu-pations for males and females, respectively (55%

and 45%). Forty-two percent of self-employed ref-erence units were involved in hawking and 29%were involved in service provision. Table 4 liststhe average incomes of the reference group byemployment category and gender. For the full-timeemployed group, there was a pronounced genderbias in earnings in favour of males (P425 vs P268for females) that is readily explained by the domi-nance of females in the ‘domestic’ occupationalgroup, which generally involves incomes of P150to P250 per month, against manual labour whichtends to pay around P350 to P500 per month. The


Table 3Earnings reference group generated by junior secondary stu-dents with division by gender (n=331 of which 184 male and147 female reference units)a

Type of employment and Percent involvement peractivity employment category

Whole Male Femalegroup

Full-timeManual 51 69 29Domestic 28 8 53Retail 16 14 18Other/unspecified 5 9 0

Part-timeManual 44 55 30Domestic 30 18 45Retail 22 21 23Other/unspecified 4 5 2

Self-employedSelling 42Service 29Other/unspecified 29

a Note: self-employed reference group not divided by genderowing to small sample size (n=55).

Table 4Average perceived monthly earnings of earnings referencegroup generated by junior secondary students with division bygender (n=303)

Category Reference units


Full-time employment P354 P425 P268Part-time employment 241 274 200Self-employed 382 349 420

manual jobs that tend to be female-dominated,such as cleaning, also pay comparatively poorly.The same comments generally apply to the genderbias for part-time employed reference units. Therewas a slight bias in favour of females for the self-employed group (P420 vs P349 for males),although it must be pointed out that estimates ofincomes for these reference units were highly vari-able. This bias did, however, put female self-employment on a par with male full-time employ-

ment. Table 5 compares the income estimates gen-erated by boys and girls. With the exception ofpart-time employed female reference units, theearnings reported by the boys were found to be 1.4to 1.8 times those reported by the girls, suggestingthat the boys tended to notice the higher earnersmore. With regard to self-employment, there wasno apparently significant difference between thesexes for the perceived earnings of male referenceunits but there was a marked difference for thefemale ones the earnings of which were noted asbeing considerably higher by the girls (factor of1.3).

Table 6 summarises the stated intentions of theForm 3 students sampled with reference to theirpost-junior secondary school lives. Eight-six per-cent indicated the desire to attend senior secondaryschool plus some tertiary training institution, witha bias towards the girls (88% vs 83% of the boys).Of the remainder, roughly equal numbers intendedto complete only senior secondary school, attend apost-junior secondary training programme, or enterformal employment directly, mostly in menialoccupations. A single boy indicated his intentionto become self-employed after finishing junior sec-ondary school. Table 7 presents the most popularcareer aspirations by gender: for boys, indescending order, law and accounting, engineeringand professional sciences (excluding medicine),armed forces and police, and becoming a pilot;while for girls, the list was medicine (excludingnursing), nursing, law and accounting, and teach-ing. Table 8 shows the earnings that these studentsanticipated upon their eventually commencingwork. Average anticipated incomes were remark-ably realistic given the stated career intentions (ifoften a little optimistic for a commencing salary),and the gender bias in anticipated earnings is con-sistent with the careers aspired to. The anticipatedincomes of all other students were, however, some-what high.

For junior secondary school students who‘fail’—i.e. those who do not succeed in gainingentry to senior secondary school—the outlook isgrim. There are few other training options open tothem, and what jobs are available to them are dead-end jobs that pay a barely subsistence wage, withlittle prospect for improvement. The greater


Table 5Average perceived monthly earnings of earnings reference groups generated by junior secondary boys and girls

Category Boys’ reference group Girls’ reference group


Full-time employment P560 P381 P307 P227Part-time employment 318 189 232 206Self-employed 357 360 338 479

Table 6Post-junior secondary school aspirations of students with division by gender (n=283 of which 122 boys and 161 girls)

Aspiration Percentage of all Boys Girlsstudents

Senior secondary school plus subsequent training 86 83 88Senior secondary school 5 6 5Post-junior secondary school training 5 6 4Full-time or part-time employment 4 5 3Self-employment 0 1 0

Table 7Common career aspirations of Form 3 students aspiring to attend senior secondary school followed by post-school training (n=201)a

Boys Girls

Law and accounting (16%) Medicine (excl. nursing) (22%)Engineering and professional sciences (15%) Nursing (18%)Army and police (11%) Law and accounting (14%)Pilot (10%) Teaching (14%)

a Note: Percentages apply to each gender group in isolation. Occupational aspirations attracting 10% or more of each gendersample are listed.

Table 8Anticipated earnings at commencement of eventual employ-ment by junior secondary students with division by gender(n=240 of which 103 boys and 137 girls)a

Aspiration All students Boys Girls

Senior secondary school P3968 P4244 P3773plus subsequent trainingAll others P2161

a Note: ‘All Others’ not subdivided by gender owing to smallsample size (n=34).

sobriety of girls in relation to formal employmentincome perceptions probably presents the morerealistic image. Junior secondary school girlsappear to be particularly aware of their limitedpost-school prospects, and accordingly awardfemales attending senior secondary school a rela-tively high reference status. One girl noted that

Jobs are very hard to find as we have manyqualified people in this country... We must tryhard to pass so that we can achieve what wewant. There is [nowhere] that you can earn highsalary without education.


Another girl focused on the intergenerational soci-oeconomic outcomes of the paltry incomes thatyoung people entering the work force from juniorsecondary school could expect:

Money is the problem for young people becauseby the time [they] have failed, [they] start find-ing jobs and earn P150,- per month and theystart thinking that they are men and women...and end up having children because they thinkthey will feed their children with P150,- whichis not good at all.

A boy described the level of exploitation some-times encountered by young work-seekers:

Doing part-time jobs lets businesses exploits[sic] your skills at very low prices. If I don’tmake it to [senior secondary school] I’d ratherwork at home without a salary.

The link between schooling, employment andsocial ills was aptly summarised by a girl callingfor alternatives to the current ‘do or die’ schoolsystem:

Those students who have failed Form 3... shouldbe employed for a certain job in order to keepthem busy and they should be paid a good sal-ary. By doing this we will be trying to reducethis high rate of crime in our country which ismostly done by young people. And of coursewe will be reducing prostitution which is doneby young females who have failed and havenothing to do. Males will start stealing anddoing many bad things.

It would appear that self-employment is not gener-ally regarded by final year junior secondary schoolstudents as a viable option, its perceived rewardsbeing roughly equivalent to full-time post-schoolemployment.

The overwhelming desire for junior secondaryschool students to further their education to the ter-tiary level would appear to be a rational responseto their prospects without it; they realise full wellthat an order of magnitude is involved with refer-ence to income expectations. It is no coincidence

that the career aspirations of most of those stu-dents, particularly the girls, predominantly featuresecure public sector professions.

3.2. The form 5 sample

The senior secondary school sample consisted of234 students of whom 100 were boys and 134 weregirls. Their average age was 18.6 years. The agerange was 15 to 22 but again the standard deviationwas quite modest at one year.

Eighty-seven senior secondary students contrib-uted written comments. Many of these presentedmixed themes. The difficulty of finding well-pay-ing jobs, the social evils arising from unemploy-ment, and the need for alternatives to conventionalschooling were again common themes. Fourteenstudents also complained of a lack of career guid-ance and/or the failure of academic programmes atsenior secondary school to allow for subsequentcareer options. Specific comments will again beintegrated into the pertinent discussion below.

The senior secondary sample generated a refer-ence group of 3,585, of which 1,901 were maleand 1,684 were female reference units. Table 9summarises the nature of this reference group.Twenty-seven percent of the reference units wereinvolved in further study or training, 15% at uni-versity and 12% in other post-school institutions.Twenty-nine percent were engaged in employmentactivities, with a gender bias in favour of male ref-erence units (32% vs 27%), and with slightly moremale reference units in full-time employment (12%vs 9%). There was a slight bias towards formalemployment as opposed to self-employment for theentire group. The single largest subcategory forthis reference group was “hanging around doingnothing” at 31%. Table 10 compares the referencegroups generated by boys and girls. Boys werelikely to notice male reference units involved infurther study or training more than were girls (31%vs 24%) while girls were slightly more likely togive prominence to female reference units doingso than were boys (28% vs 24%). The status ofmale reference group employment was moreprominent for both boys’ and girls’ perceptionsthan was that of female reference units (31/21%for males vs 27% for females). Boys were mark-


Table 9Reference group generated by senior secondary students with division by gender (n=3,585 of which 1,901 male and 1,684 femalereference units)


Whole group Male Female

Further study or training 27 27 27Attending university 15 15 15Attending some other programme 12 12 11

Employment 29 32 27Full-time jobs 11 12 9Part-time jobs 11 10 11Self-employed 8 9 7

Neither of the above 44 41 46Working for family without pay 13 12 14“Hanging around doing nothing” 31 30 32

Table 10Reference groups generated by senior secondary boys and girls (boys reference group=1,534 of which 856 male and 678 femalereference units; girls’ reference group=2,051 of which 1,155 male and 1,185 female reference units)


Boys’ reference group Girls’ reference group


Further study/training 31 24 24 28Attending university 16 14 14 16Other programme 14 10 10 12

Employment 32 27 31 27Full-time jobs 13 9 12 9Part-time jobs 11 12 10 10Self-employed 9 6 9 8

Neither 37 48 45 45Working for family 10 14 13 14“Hanging around” 26 35 32 31

edly more likely to cite instances of female refer-ence units “hanging around doing nothing” thanthey were to cite cases of male reference unitsdoing so (35% vs 26%).

Table 11 categorises the employed referencegroup by occupation. Manual labour was the mostcommon occupation of the full-time and part-timeemployed reference units (30% and 38%,respectively), and for full-time employed females(28%) and part-time employed males (51%). Forthe male full-time employed reference units, aslightly greater number were in the army or police

(33%); this high rating serves to remind us of thesubjective nature of the reference group as used inthis study. Twenty percent of full-time employedfemale reference units were in domestic service,and the same proportion were in clerical and sec-retarial work. The retail sector employed a pro-portion of employed reference units comparable tothat for the junior secondary students’ referencegroup in both the full-time and part-time work cat-egories, but there was a gender bias in favour offemale reference units for those employed full-time(17% vs 14% for males). Temporary work in edu-


Table 11Earnings reference group generated by senior secondary stu-dents with division by gender (n=537 of which 308 male and229 female reference units)a

Type of employment and Percent involvement peractivity employment category


Full-timeManual 30 31 28Army and police 21 33 3Retail 14 12 17Clerical/secretarial 13 8 20Education and health 10 10 10Domestic 8 0 20Other/unspecified 5 7 2

Part-timeManual 38 51 22Retail 24 24 25Clerical/secretarial 8 6 11Education and health 22 16 28Domestic 3 0 7Other/unspecified 5 3 6

Self-employedSelling 33Service 40Other/unspecified 27


cation and health accounted for 10% of full-timeand 22% of part-time employment, the latter witha bias in favour of females (28% vs 16% for malereference units). For reference units involved inself-employment activities, 40% were in serviceactivities and 27% were engaged in selling. Table12 presents average reference group earnings.

Table 12Average perceived monthly earnings of earnings referencegroup generated by senior secondary students with division bygender (n=437)

Category Reference units


Full-time employment P978 P1121 P767Part-time employment 658 649 668Self-employed 714 751 662

There was a strong earnings bias in the full-timecategory in favour of males (factor of 1.5) whichcan again be explained with reference to the occu-pations listed; for instance, the armed forces payyoung entrants comparatively very well. Femaleaverage earnings were also depressed by theremaining moderate incidence of domestic service.There was no notable gender discrepancy for thepart-time employed group. For the self-employedreference units, males were perceived as earning alittle more than females but this is probably negli-gible given the high variation present in estimates.Table 13 indicates that there was no difference inboys’ and girls’ perceptions of full-time employ-ment earnings for male and female reference units.For the part-time employed reference units, boyswere again slightly more liberal in their evaluationsthan were girls, for both sexes; however, The girlshad contributed higher income estimates for bothmale and female reference units engaged in self-employment activities (factors of 1.3 and 1.6,respectively).

Table 14 tabulates the stated intentions of thesenior secondary students sampled. About half(53%) aspired to attend university, with a slightbias in favour of boys (59% vs 49%). Forty-twopercent intended to pursue other post-school train-ing, this time with a bias in favour of girls (47%vs 35%). Overall, the proportions of both sexesaspiring to post-school education or training wereabout the same at roughly 95%. Only 3% wishedto enter formal employment directly from seniorsecondary school and 2% stated their intention toembark on self-employment. Table 15 lists themost common career aspirations of the groupsaspiring to university or other tertiary institutions.For the university-oriented boys, these were, indescending order, engineering and professionalsciences, business administration and medicine(excluding nursing), while for the girls they weremedicine (excluding nursing), law and accounting,engineering and professional sciences, and busi-ness administration—a considerable degree ofoverlap reinforcing the converging influence ofadvanced education. For the boys aiming to pursuepost-school non-university training, the most popu-lar career aspirations were, in descending order,mechanical and electrical vocations, agricultural


Table 13Average perceived monthly earnings of earnings reference groups generated by senior secondary boys and girls

Category Boys’ reference group Girls’ reference group


Full-time employment P1110 P765 P1131 P768Part-time employment 692 737 618 630Self-employed 676 500 894 783

Table 14Post-senior secondary school aspirations of students with division by gender (n=234 of which 100 boys and 134 girls)

Aspiration Percentage of all Boys Girlsstudents

University 53 59 49Post-senior secondary school training 42 35 47Full-time or part-time employment 3 5 1Self-employment 2 1 2

Table 15Common career aspirations of senior secondary students aspiring to attend university (n=124) or other tertiary institutions (n=98)a

Group Boys Girls

University Engineering and professional sciences (39%) Medicine (excl. nursing) (34%)Business administration (16%) Law and accounting (17%)Medicine (excl. nursing) (14%) Engineering and professional sciences (17%)

Business administration (11%)Other tertiary Mechanical and electrical (41%) Teaching (27%)

Agriculture and veterinary (12%) Clerical and secretarial (19%)Teaching (12%) Nursing and medical lab (16%)

Agriculture and veterinary (16%)

a Note: Percentages apply to gender groups in isolation. Career options attracting 10% or more of each group are listed.

and veterinary services, and teaching, whereas forthe girls they were teaching, clerical and secretarialwork, nursing and medical laboratory work, andagricultural and veterinary services. Table 16 sum-marises the earnings anticipated by the senior sec-ondary students upon their commencement ofwork. The university-oriented group on averageanticipated P5,406 monthly, with only a small gen-der bias (again, realistic but somewhat optimisticfor a commencing salary), while the studentsintending to pursue non-university advanced train-

ing anticipated an also realistic average income ofP2,739, but this time with a more pronounced gen-der bias in favour of boys (factor of 1.3) consistentwith the occupations listed. The small groupintending to embark on employment activitiesanticipated an excessively generous averagemonthly income of P2,491 owing to the presenceof some grandiose plans.

For final-year senior secondary school students,economic prospects are not as depressing in the‘world of work’ as they are for the junior second-


Table 16Anticipated earnings at commencement of eventual employ-ment by senior secondary students with division by gender(n=193 of which 83 boys and 110 girls)a

Aspiration All students Boys Girls

University P5406 P5813 P5042Post-senior secondary 2739 3189 2499trainingEmployment 2491


ary cohort. However, direct entry into the workforce is not a common choice amongst senior sec-ondary students, not necessarily because of itsundesirability but because of the limited openingsavailable, particularly with reference to economi-cally enticing ones. One girl grumbled ominouslythat

Young people who have finished Form 5 andother... are roaming about looking for full-timejobs... There are many foreigners in our countrytaking jobs... There is a lot of corruption in jobsin this country you may find that relatives areworking in the same company... There is alsocorruption in the schools... the children of thewealthy do not suffer.

At the same time, some students warned againstentering the labour market from school, such as theboy who wrote

Young people are after money nowadays. Theyjust rush to go and work for nuts [sic] immedi-ately after finishing their form five withoutgoing to further education for better payment.They are given temporal [sic] jobs and thereforewhen the job finishes, they start roaming in thestreets with nowhere to go. Some young end upbeing enticed by men for money and thisincreases the rate of AIDS.

The need for alternatives to the current educationand training system was again a common theme.One girl suggested the following:

Nowadays there are no jobs. This causes a lotof problems to young people after completingForm 5. So I think students in school should beallowed to choose the subjects for their careersin which they can be able to benefit from them.For example someone can choose to do Fashionand Fabrics because after schooling, if she havefailed [sic], she can employ herself by sowing[sic] clothing and selling in order to get moneyand earn a living.

The need for greater flexibility in academic struc-tures was alluded to by several other students.Another girl noted with tangible exasperation that

Most of young people are suffering because insenior school, they are forced to do all the sub-jects. I suggest that... we must specialize in sub-jects which we know we can perform well sothat after finishing school we have the chanceto go to tertiary education and continue with ourstudies. After finishing our courses we will beable to get ‘nice salary’ and enjoy our livingstandards... e.g. I am poor in Maths and Biologyand I’m forced to do them whereas I’m good inSocial Sciences and English... I’m going to suf-fer because of two subjects and I’m going tohang around the village.

A number of students made uncomplimentarycomments about the careers guidance programmethat they were exposed to at school. One boy wrotein capitals:

Most young people who have completed theirsenior education are not provided with muchinformation in careers, the courses they can per-sue [sic].

This situation will hopefully be alleviated by theformerly mentioned careers fairs, and and will beone of the foci of a future follow-up study.

3.3. Junior secondary/senior secondarycomparisons

Further study or training featured more promi-nently in the junior secondary reference group,


brought about by the level of transition to seniorsecondary school. The female bias was negated.Entrants to the work force featured slightly moreprominently in the senior secondary referencegroup, for both groups with a male bias, consistentwith the claim that there are more employmentopportunities for boys and men, and also with pre-vailing societal views concerning the economicroles of the sexes. There was a disturbing increasein the proportion of reference units engaged inneither further study nor remunerated employment,particularly for females, reinforcing students’claims about the scarcity of work relative to thenumber of job-seekers from senior secondaryschool.

The range of occupations engaged in by refer-ence units was predictably greater for senior sec-ondary reference units than it was for the juniorsecondary group. At the same time, displacementthrough educational inflation (Cohn and Geske,1990, p. 215) is evident: 56% of the full-timeemployed units and 70% of the part-time employedunits constituting the formally employed seniorsecondary reference group were engaged in activi-ties that coincided with the Form 3 referencegroup. A recognition of this effect, in the contextof the disdain of educated youngsters for blue-col-lar work, was voiced by a boy who wrote:

In the near future life would be very tough asmany people would be competing for jobsbecause more and more people are being edu-cated. Majority of people will not be workingbecause there won’t be enough jobs so they willhave to self-employ themselves. The problem ofpoverty would be increased by educated peoplewho only want white color [sic] jobs.

Table 17 summarises the average earnings dif-ferentials between the two employed referencegroups. For those in formal employment, it wouldappear that senior secondary schooling raisesincome generation potential by a factor of abouttwo and three-quarters over the preceding level ofeducation. The economic benefit of senior second-ary schooling is particularly evident for girls, andis associated with their greater engagement ingovernment employment as educational and health

Table 17Ratios of average perceived monthly earnings of referencegroups who entered employment from senior and junior second-ary school

Category Whole Male Femalegroup

Full-time employment 2.8 2.6 2.9Part-time employment 2.7 2.4 3.3Self-employed 1.9 2.2 1.6

workers, especially in the case of those in part-time employment. The effect of senior secondaryschooling on self-employment incomes was toroughly double them on average. This observationis consistent with the shift towards better-rewarding service activities as opposed to hawking.Whether senior secondary schooling per se has anybearing on this increment is somewhat question-able, given that these people are on average threeyears older than self-employed reference units gen-erated by the junior secondary students, and thefact that senior secondary school entrants aredrawn from the most intellectually gifted 30% ofthe population.

For both Form levels, a desire to remain in theformal education system to the tertiary level pre-vailed. A gender bias in favour of females withrespect to this intention was reduced. Career aspir-ations showed some gender convergence for theuniversity-oriented senior secondary students, asdid income expectations. It will be noted that theaverage anticipated income of Form 3 studentsintending to pursue post-senior secondary traininglies between the eventual earnings expectations ofForm 5 students hoping to attend university andthose aiming at non-university tertiary training,suggesting that Form 3 students on the whole hadaccurate perceptions of professional incomes,although for both sets of students there was a mea-sure of optimism about commencing salaries. Inneither group did vocational aspirations feature ata level worthy of tabulating. In both cases, theincome expectations of those aspiring to employ-ment tended to be inflated compared with their ref-erence groups.


4. Conclusion

On one occasion during the empirical phase ofthe study, the researcher was told by a seniorteacher that students would ‘have no idea’ of theeconomic realities of adult life; a couple of otherteachers had expressed doubts in a similar vein. Onthe contrary, the results of this study have shownthat a majority of Gaborone youngsters are wellinformed about these realities. In particular, theyappear to be acutely aware of the flow-on linkbetween educational attainment and future earn-ings. With regard to the overwhelmingly dominantdesire to continue to tertiary levels of formal edu-cation and training, perhaps the word ‘expec-tations’ is inappropriate given the realisation thatpost-school direct employment all too oftenequates with entry into a life of poverty, especiallyfor girls and junior secondary school leavers. They‘aspire’ to training levels and occupations thatmany can not possibly hope to attain because thealternative is impoverishment and despondencywith little, if any, hope of eventual remise. Theconstant use of the word ‘fail’ by students at bothlevels to describe not being promoted to the nextlevel of formal education is a strong indicator ofprevailing attitudes towards life-after-school pros-pects.

In the formal employment sector, it is hoped thateconomic diversification will lead to a higher rateof increase of job opportunities than that of labourforce growth (Ministry of Finance and Develop-ment Planning, 1997, p. 92). The degree of confi-dence in this prediction amongst the school stu-dents sampled is likely to be low. Rather, theincrease in access to senior secondary school overthe next few years is likely to exacerbate theemployment situation for both exiting Form 5cohorts and for Form 3 leavers whose opportunitiesare already shrinking due to the displacementeffect. Efforts to direct students towards directemployment options from school are almost certainto fail if the economic disincentives associatedwith many of those options are not ameliorated.Given the general association between governmentemployment and raised income levels, the solutionto the quandary probably lies not with the edu-cation system but with legislation governing the

engagement and remuneration of labour in theprivate sector. Such moves would, however, makeself-employment an even less attractive option thanit currently is. If this study is any indication, self-employment is viewed either as a last resort, oreven as an unviable alternative to working for thefamily without pay, or simply “hanging arounddoing nothing”, by most Gaborone school youthscontemplating their immediate futures.

Acknowledgements

My thanks are extended to the following fortheir valuable assistance: Mr J. Naudi at the Guid-ance and Counselling Division of the Departmentof Curriculum Development, Gaborone; and theteachers who liaised with me at the participatingschools: Mrs C. Mankandla of Bonnington CJSS(Community Junior Secondary School), Mrs T.Motlogelwa of Bokamoso CJSS, Mr G. Gathsha ofGaborone West CJSS, Mrs B. Mmoci of MaokaCJSS, Mr S. Maribang of Marang CJSS, Mrs W.Motswagole of Moselewapula CJSS, Mr K. Kobeof Ledumang Senior Secondary School, and Mr G.Mothibi of Moshupa Senior Secondary School.

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Documents

Botswana secondary students' perceptions of the education/employment nexus