This paper examines the Botswana government's objectives and implementation strategies in the development of community secondary schools. With a population of 1.5 million and an annual growth rate of 3.5 percent, Botswana is one of the fastest growing countries in the world. Recent dramatic economic growth, largely due to diamond revenues, has not reduced poverty, and in fact, has increased inequalities between rural and urban areas. In an effort to address this problem, the government has emphasized education as the key to national development. The state's adoption of free elementary and secondary education led to massive expansion of schools between 1983 and 1993. Although the state addressed many problems resulting from such rapid expansion, the major weakness of the education system continues to be the state's domination of educational reform. An example of this is the development of community secondary schooling. The government proposed that community schools would be based on community financing and stressed community participation in school management, curriculum development, and use of school facilities. Thus far, however, community schooling has failed to improve the quality of basic education due to a number of factors: poor communication between the state and local communities; lack of financial resources for school construction, particularly in rural areas; a curriculum that disregards community needs; high illiteracy among community members; failure of teachers to consider the importance of culture in instruction; and the view that community involvement in school management is a hindrance to effective schools. (LP)