The Botswana Examinations Council (BEC) is in the process of developing a new Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) certificate, as the education parastatal will no longer be offering joint certification with Cambridge University Press and Assessment (CUPA). This was revealed by the Minister of Child Welfare and Basic Education, Ms Nono Kgafela-Mokoka while delivering a statement in Parliament on December 4. Ms Kgafela-Mokoka said subsequent to a BEC board resolution of August 2024 to approve a strategy to gradually withdraw from the CUPA Accreditation with Certification contract, a decision, which was endorsed by cabinet in October, BEC entered into a new contract with the British institution.
“BEC entered a three-year Accreditation without Certification contract. This was done to ensure that BEC continues to receive independent quality assurance of the assessment operations for the delivery of credible qualifications. This is a scaled down contract, which will cost about £562 000 (P10 million) annually compared to the previous contract, which cost P27 million annually,” Ms Kgafela-Mokoka said.
She clarified that the amendment of the contract meant that from the 2025 examination series, BEC and Cambridge would no longer issue a joint certificate to BGCSE candidates and that BEC would independently design and issue a new certificate under their own authority. Ms Kgafela-Mokoka said the BEC board had approved the new design of the 2025 BGCSE certificate at their sitting in August, and that the current Accreditation without Certification CUPA contract would run until the 2027 examination cycle. “While the down scaled quality assurance contract is running, BEC has begun the process of identifying a local partner with capacity to assume the role of external quality assurance to the BEC qualifications starting 2028 examination cycle,” Ms Kgafela-Mokoka said.
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She said external quality assurance of assessment processes was critical as it ensured that standards for both the assessment and its associated curriculum did not drift overtime as well as instilling confidence stakeholders had in the qualification. Ms Kgafela-Mokoka said BEC, a parastatal under the ministry, was mandated to manage and conduct examinations and assessments in general education, technical vocational education and training and to award certificates in respect of the said examinations and assessments. She further said the BEC and CUPA partnership dated back to the time BEC functions were operated by the Examinations, Research and Testing Division division of the then Ministry of Education. Over the years CUPA assisted government to replace the then Cambridge Overseas School Certificate (COSC) by developing a localised qualification that was recognised internationally and also equivalent to International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) as recommended in the Revised National Policy on Education of 1994.
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