293 H.K. Siphambe Economics of Education Review 19 2000 291–300
with a senior secondary certificate. All of the university graduates were trained outside the country, mainly in the
Republic of South Africa Harvey Lewis, 1990. Given the limited human capital inherited from the col-
onial government, the Botswana government had to invest heavily in education, but there were still severe
shortages mainly due to long time lags inherent in edu- cation and rapid economic growth, which in turn
increased the demand for educated people Harvey Lewis, 1990. Most of these critical manpower shortages
were met by heavy importation of skilled labour, which was very expensive for the Botswana government. Just
2 years prior to its independence, only 24 of the 184 administrative posts were held by Batswana; even at
lower levels, only 275 out of 623 posts in the technical, executive and secretarial grades were held by Batswana
Colclough McCarthy, 1980.
School enrolment for all levels increased considerably after independence, as a response to this manpower con-
straint. In 1975, 58 of primary-school-age children were enrolled; by 1991 this percentage had increased to
91. The percentage of children enrolled at secondary education also increased remarkably from 7 in 1970 to
54 in 1991. Post secondary tertiary enrolment increased slightly from 1 in 1970 to 3 in 1991
World Bank, 1994, pp. 217–217. Compared with most countries for which data are available, the increase in
enrolment in secondary education between 1970 and 1991 for Botswana was exceptional. South Africa
increased its enrolment from 30 to 54 over the same period; Zimbabwe, from 4 to 13; Lesotho, from 7
to 25 World Bank, 1994, pp. 216–217.
During the late 1970s the Government became increasingly aware of the equity issues of education as
there was evidence that a number of students were unable to complete some levels of education due to fin-
ancial constraints. In line with its universal education for all goal, the Government abolished school fees, first for
primary school 1978, and later for secondary school 1989.
University education was paid for by the Government via a bursary that stipulates that the graduate contributes
5 of initial gross salary for each year of sponsorship. Apart from the fact that this contribution does not cover
the full costs of training, a more serious problem has been that a majority of the graduates have not made this
contribution from their income. Co-ordination between employers and the bursaries department has been poor,
making it difficult to find out who is contributing and even to trace graduates Republic of Botswana, 1991.
To alleviate this situation, the National Development Plan 7 NDP7 introduced cost recovery through a
loangrant scheme. The loan or grant is provided to any Motswana who qualifies for university entry. Primary
and secondary education continue to be free.
5. Earnings differentials
Table 1 shows average earnings of workers in the HIES sample by levels of education. As expected, aver-
age earnings increase as the level of education rises. Males with post-secondary education earn six times
more than those with no formal education. The earnings differentials are more pronounced for female employees
where those with post-secondary education earn 13 times more than those with no formal education. Compared
with earnings differentials reported in 1972 and 1986 4.5 and 6.1, respectively, these ratios indicate an
increase in earnings differentials between those with lower levels of education and those with higher levels
of education.
5
Females on average earn less than their male counterparts for all education levels, but the
inequality between gender becomes progressively less as education rises. The ratios rise from 0.46 between those
with no schooling to 0.98 between those with tertiary education. Gender discrimination, if present, is likely to
be at the lower levels of education, especially among those with no schooling and lower primary school level.
This might be due to job segregation on a gender basis, especially as there is a stricter division of labour for jobs
mainly performed by this category of workers.
Table 2 shows some of the characteristics of workers by type of organisation. The public sector workers are
much older, have more years of experience on the job, more years of schooling, and half of them have had some
training. Public sector workers also earn more than priv- ate sector employees. The higher average gross earnings
of public sector workers could result from the fact that the Government can afford to pay more. The higher aver-
age earnings of public sector workers can also be explained by the fact that workers employed in this sec-
tor possess more of the human capital stock of schooling,
Table 1 Mean monthly earnings of workers by education levels Pula:
overall and by gender
a
School category Overall
Male Female
No school 346
403 187
Lower primary 1–4 453
568 262
High primary 5–7 491
628 350
Low secondary 8–10 843
1051 704
High secondary 11–12 1593 1699
1450 Tertiary education 13
+ 2504
2517 2484
a
Source: Household Income and Expenditure Survey data, 199394.
5
See Kann, Ahmed, Chilisa, Dikole, King, Malikongwa, Marope et al. 1988 p. 104 for summary of the ratios for
1972 and 1986.
294 H.K. Siphambe Economics of Education Review 19 2000 291–300
Table 2 Characteristics of workers by ownership of organisationfirm
a
Variablesector Age
Educ. head Experience
Hours School
Training Gross income
b
Private sector 31
7.5 8.4
196 7.8
0.33 P736
Public 34
9.4 10.5
169 9.5
0.5 P1115
a
Source: Supplementary Survey data.
b
Gross earnings is average Pula amount per month from the Supplementary Survey data. Table 3
Earnings by level of education, by sector and gender
a
Private employees Public employees
All Male
Female All
Male Female
No school 608
658 210
584 676
348 lowprim
535 609
303 667
972 438
highprim 526
622 402
705 809
455 lowsec
669 774
577 1024
1105 953
highsec 1265
1395 1088
1319 1541
1083 Tertiary
2416 2364
2485 2842
3491 1967
a
Source: Supplementary Survey data.
experience and training than workers in the private sec- tor. However, it is not certain whether the higher earn-
ings in the public sector reflect the higher productivity of workers with more human capital stock, or whether
those human capital stocks are being merely used as screens without necessarily making public workers more
productive than private sector workers. In other words, screening might be prevalent in Botswana’s public sec-
tor.
Table 3 shows average earnings by level of education and by type of employment. Average earnings increase
as the level of education increases. Except for those with no schooling, public sector employees on average earn
more than private sector employees across all education levels. Earnings ratios between those with no education
and those with post secondary education are slightly higher between public employees. Results from Kann et
al. 1988 show that for those with no education and those with primary education the average salary was
higher in government, whereas for those with secondary and tertiary education levels the private sector paid more.
Higher salaries in the public sector for employees with secondary and tertiary education compared with the priv-
ate sector reflect two things. First, the ‘decompression’ exercise of 1990 increased government salaries for
higher level workers quite significantly. Secondly, due to the relative abundance of graduates from secondary
and tertiary levels of education, the private sector no longer needs to pay higher wages than the public sector
for recruitment purposes.
6. Exploring earnings variation
