A/HRC/31/59/Add.1 dominant language of the area in which the school is located was not considered because the related recommendation to establish preschool education was not accepted. 37. Since then, Botswana has made a commitment, at the national level as well as in its interactions with United Nations mechanisms, to better reflect minority languages in the education system. However, there have been many hesitations and contradictions, reflecting fierce internal debates.23 38. Adopted in 1997, Vision 2016: A Long-term Vision for Botswana contains important commitments pertaining to cultural rights, including linguistic rights and the right to education. In particular, it is stated that “Botswana’s wealth of different languages and cultural traditions will be recognized, supported and strengthened within the education system. No Motswana will be disadvantaged in the education system as a result of a mother tongue that differs from the country’s two official languages” (which, as the Special Rapporteur understands, refers to English and Setswana). Vision 2016 further stresses that no citizen will be disadvantaged as a result of, inter alia, language and that, by 2016, the country will still possess a diverse mix of cultures, languages, traditions and peoples sharing a common destiny, that it will harness that diversity and achieve ethnic integration and full partnership to create a nation in harmony with itself. 24 More particularly, Vision 2016 states that all of the nation’s languages must be taught to a high standard at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels.25 However, in assessing its progress, Vision 2016 noted that its expectation of embracing other languages in the educational system remained a major challenge.26 39. Following the first cycle of the universal periodic review in 2009, Botswana accepted the recommendation to pursue a policy of mother-tongue language education in conjunction with the national languages, Setswana and English.27 In its national report for the second cycle of the review in 2012, the Government stated, in follow-up to the said recommendation, that it appreciated the importance of using mother tongues for early schooling and that it was exploring different strategies to accommodate mother tongue education in the education system, including by introducing teacher aides at the primary school level.28 The Special Rapporteur was informed that such teacher aides have been successfully introduced in Ghanzi, where a significant part of the population is Basarwa, as well as elsewhere to deal specifically with mother tongue difficulties. She noted with great interest that, thanks to a Government-led pilot project, preschool education was offered in four schools in the Ghanzi district, but she was unsure as to whether that included mother tongue education. 40. While appreciating such progress, the Special Rapporteur recalls that using the mother tongue in the initial years of learning significantly increases the quality of education as it allows children to learn and develop life skills as well as self-esteem. She joins the Special Rapporteur on the right to education who, following his visit to Botswana in 2006, was convinced of the negative impact on students of the brutal shift from using their mother tongue at home to being taught in another language at primary school and of its negative consequences for the learning process.29 She considers that the current system 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 10 See Parliamentary debate of 26 April 2013 on the motion “Government to make education more inclusive”. See Botswana, Vision 2016 booklet (1997), pp. 7 and 12; and A/HRC/WG.6/3/BWA/1, para. 120. See Botswana, Vision 2016 booklet (1997), p. 26. See Vision 2016 website at www.vision2016.co.bw, Status at a glance across all pillars by key result areas, pillar 1. A/HRC/10/69/Add.1, p. 6, recommendation 18. See A/HRC/WG.6/15/BWA/1, para. 62. E/CN.4/2006/45/Add.1, para. 67.