ABSTRACT This study examines the implementation of the education decentralisation process and its effect on secondary schools in Botswana in the case of the South Central Region. This topic was chosen against the wide-scale adoption by African countries of the international policy of educational decentralization, which takes different forms in different purposes. Literature on decentralization and school monitoring and support was consulted as well as evidence from different African countries. The study uses a qualitative approach and case study of a region to collect data through interviews and document analysis. Purposive sampling was used to select participants from the Ministry of Education headquarters, national Secondary Education Department and the South Central Region Office. Six Secondary Schools were sampled for the purpose of illustrating the impact of the regional administrative decentralization on different kinds of schools. The research findings reveal that Botswana has adopted the particular form of regional administrative decentralization for the purpose of administrative efficiency and the improvement of its school monitoring and support functions. The study revealed that some benefits, such as speedier response to teachers’ welfare matters, facilitation of distribution of resources in particular, learner- support materials and teachers, did occur. However, contrary to expectations, it surfaced that the process was ridden with more problems than solutions, mainly because many of the preconditions necessary for effective administrative decentralization were not present. For example, there was a lack of common understanding of the form and extent of decentralisation, human and other resources, role clarity and proper accountability lines, resulting in duplication of effort and tension between the regional and national offices as well as misaligned decentralization functions within the education bureaucracy. The main recommendations of the study are that the Ministry of Education should revisit the strategy to take on board and empower the regions to effectively execute their mandate of monitoring and supporting secondary schools in their jurisdiction. This will require increased capacity and resources as well as strategic leadership on behalf of the region.

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No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Sirleide de Almeida Lima - 2013.pdf: 6042866 bytes, checksum: 1c519832eab5be4f0a3a78630d17732a (MD5) license_rdf: 19874 bytes, checksum: 38cb62ef53e6f513db2fb7e337df6485 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-10-31 / This dissertation examines practices of reading and writing in the process of basic schooling, performed as extracurricular service to students with learning difficulties. Stand out at the school, other discursive practices of literacy, because they are different from those made in numerous halls of education. Thus, we recruited students who do not fit the didactic adopted in numerous classes, who have proficiency reading and writing to the school attended and incompatible with a history of school failure. The general objectives of research are: to analyze the discursive practices while monitoring school students struggling in reading and writing in primary; outline the profile of these students as readers and producers of text from a critical- cultural vision of the history of reading and writing; analyze workshops on reading and writing, and assess whether these activities meet the needs of students, helping them to achieve greater access to social literate practices. For this research, we selected 29 students from middle and high school, ages 12-19 years old. The data collection tools were used: participant observation, questionnaires, text reports in the genre of reading and writing, in which participants narrated their stories of reading and writing and also the construction of a diary of readings where students record the readings taken during the week in meetings and at home. This research is based on the theoretical concept of enunciation of the Bakhtin Circle that includes language as a place of interaction and the formation of social relations, where the speakers become subject; analyze the ingenuity hidden in everyday practices, from the sociological approach De Certeau through the specification of the categories of space, of place, of strategies and tactics and a historical practices of reading and writing by which social groups in different periods and social spaces are inserted in the written culture from studies of Roger Chartier , Alberto Manguel, Steven Fischer, of Lasdilas Mandel and David Olson. Realize that this attention is an extremely necessary and at the same time, an exercise in persistence, because the positive results of better learning suggest that specific practices are necessary, planned and diversified to ensure favorable conditions for the overcome the difficulties experienced by these students. / Esta dissertação analisa práticas de leitura e de escrita na escola, realizadas como atendimento extraclasse a alunos em dificuldades de aprendizagem. Destacam-se, na esfera escolar, outras oportunidades de práticas de leitura e escrita, diferentes daquelas efetuadas em salas numerosas de ensino regular. Para tanto, foram recrutados estudantes que não se ajustam ao tratamento didático adotado em classes numerosas, que apresentam proficiência leitora e escrita incompatível ao grau cursado e com histórico de fracasso escolar. Os objetivos gerais de pesquisa são: analisar as práticas de leitura e escrita durante o acompanhamento escolar a alunos em dificuldades de leitura e escrita no ensino básico; delinear o perfil desses alunos como leitores e produtores de texto a partir de uma visão crítico-cultural da história da leitura e da escrita; analisar a realização de oficinas de leitura e produção escrita, e avaliar se essas atividades satisfazem às necessidades dos alunos, auxiliando-os a alcançar um maior acesso às práticas sociais letradas. Para esta pesquisa, foram selecionados 29 estudantes do ensino fundamental e médio, na faixa etária de 12 a 19 anos de idade. As ferramentas de coleta de dados utilizadas foram: observação participante, questionários, textos no gênero relatos de leitura e de escrita, em que os participantes narravam suas histórias de leitura e de escrita e ainda a construção de um diário de leituras em que os estudantes registram as leituras feitas durante a semana nos encontros e em casa. Esta pesquisa tem como base teórica a concepção enunciativa do Círculo de Bakhtin que compreende a linguagem como lugar de interação e de constituição de relações sociais, em que os falantes se tornam sujeitos. Para analisar a inventividade escondida nas práticas cotidianas, vale-se do enfoque sociológico de De Certeau sobre as apropriações das categorias de espaço, de lugar, de estratégias e de táticas. Adota-se uma abordagem histórica das práticas de leitura e escrita pelos quais os grupos sociais, em distintos períodos e espaços sociais, se inserem na cultura escrita, acompanhando estudos de Roger Chartier, de Alberto Manguel, de Steven Fischer, de Lasdilas Mandel e de David Olson. Percebe-se que essa atenção especial é uma tarefa extremamente necessária e, ao mesmo tempo, um exercício de persistência, pois os resultados positivos de melhor condição de aprendizagem levam a crer que são necessárias práticas específicas, planejadas e diversificadas, que assegurem condições favoráveis à superação das dificuldades vivenciadas por esses alunos. Palavras-