The teachers said they were disadvantaged by the criteria used to hire heads of department. Ditau said the criteria discriminated candidates who qualified but were not in acting positions. “The advert wanted someone who has been in an acting position for a year but you will find out that this is not the case. This disadvantaged those who were in those schools where there were no acting positions,” Ditau said.

He stated that the intention of lodging the complaint was not to disadvantage those who have already been called for interviews but to give all those who qualified for the promotion a fair chance.

When contacted, the Ministry of Education’s Public Relations Officer, Nomsah Zuze, said that they have not received any correspondence from BOSETU. “We have not seen anything yet from them. We will wait for the letter and see what they are querying,” Zuze said.

The threat from BOSETU follows another from the Botswana Teachers Union (BTU), which has warned it will go to court over unfair labour practices by the ministry. BTU revealed that one of their main concerns is the discrimination in levels of operations for primary and secondary teachers. BTU queried the status of college lecturers who they say are operating without a scheme of service and the leave benefit for teachers and lecturers on departmental transfers, resignations and retirements.