Education for rural development in Africa is a sure-fire subject, but changes happen quickly, and sometimes disastrously for projects which looked like having a long life. Jennifer C. Ward's optimistic discussion of experiments in Botswana – in this Journal, x, 4, December 1972, pp. 611–20 – is unfortunately somewhat out of date. Both Swaneng Hill School and Shashi River School have almost ceased their old emphasis on involvement with practical village life and their possibilities of producing a new type of boy or girl. Under Government-appointed headmasters, both these schools are now back to standard examination-passing, with all the emphasis on classroom work and most pupils doubtless looking forward either to the whitecollar professions or to office jobs, both in the daily increasing ranks of the public and private sectors.