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Following the dispatch of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer (JOCV) teachers for Mathematics and Science in some Primary Schools in Botswana as a way of supporting quality education, Ministry of Basic Education (MOBE) and JICA has noted some academic improvements and more learning interest in the subjects by pupils. For the past two years, JICA has dispatched six primary school Japanese teachers through its JOCV Programme in different parts of Botswana who introduced different teaching methodologies as well as sharing their teaching experiences with their teacher counterparts in their respective schools.

Some of the teaching methodologies and techniques that have been devised and introduced by the JOCV teachers are arithmetic songs and videos, interactive charts, lesson plan management and team teaching amongst pupils.

During an interview with, a teacher colleague, Ms. Tomeletso, acknowledged the important role the Japanese Volunteer support plays in augmenting their teaching curriculum. She shared that her Japanese colleague Ms. Shoko allocates 30 minutes in each class she attends and does remedial exercises with enhanced techniques by the use of songs, videos, age appropriate and attractive illustrations, charts etc., which subsequently fill the gaps of those who are left behind on certain topics. This significantly increases the pupils' memories in Mathematics as they remember easily through the songs, videos and pictographs they created and thus improves their overall academic performance improvement.

Ms. Tomeletso also shared that given the golden opportunity of having had a Japanese Volunteer in their school for 2 years, she often encourages local teachers to learn Ms. Shoko's teaching skills and class management as much as possible as there is no guarantee that they will get another JOCV teacher when her tenure ends. Representatives from MOBE also expressed immense appreciation for the cooperation with hopes that it can be continuous and sustainable. According to them, given the 755 primary schools in Botswana, if they would at least secure 10 Japanese volunteers per region, this would really go a long way in improving national academic performance and results of pupils.

However, they stated that they would support the provision of workshops for teachers to share teaching methodologies. In addition to that, they expressed interest in developing a short television and radio programme through the mathematics songs that have been created by the volunteers. She said this seemed to be loved by pupils from the volunteer classes and would be even more popular and appealing if extended through such communication mediums.