The Impact of Cost Sharing and Parental Participation on Secondary School Performance in Botswana

Abstract

The Botswana government discontinued school fees in the 1980s as an attempt to address the endemic poverty and gravely unequal distribution of wealth in the country. The country invested vast amounts in education in an attempt to achieve impressive gains in educational access at all levels. However, the dawn of the new millennium brought with it the re-introduction of school fees. This was termed cost recovery, but many authors across the world blame the move for eroding the gains achieved during the era of free education in a number of countries. This study seeks to investigate the changes that the exercise could have brought about in the areas of parental participation and schools' academic results. The researchers used a case study method for the qualitative research. Observations, documentary study and interviews were used to collect data. Both purposeful and random techniques were used to select respondents. The results of the study revealed that paying secondary school fees cannot be used to enhance parental participation and schools' academic results. However, it was proven that there is positive correlation between parental participation and the quality of school results.