Gov't urged to prioritize teachers
Staff Writer | Tuesday June 7, 2022 06:00
“Your Excellency, a resilient teacher amidst COVID-19 should not only be pronounced rhetorically but rather, teachers’ resilience should be accompanied by tangible support from the employer and all other stakeholders in education.
In our view as the trade unions for educators, for a teacher to become resilient during COVID-19, there is a dire need for a drastic and radical transformation of our education system to address the COVID-19 related challenges.
There is an urgent need Your Excellency that our schools should be digitalised, fitted with modern technology and equipment such as interactive boards and should enjoy connectivity. It is in this era of COVID, and post-COVID, that we should see our education system turning to the use of electronic textbooks, students being issued with tablets and both teachers and students assisted with connectivity for remote learning to take place. Your Excellency, all the above would enable a teacher to be resilient amidst COVID-19,” Motshegwa said.
He blasted government for taking its own sweet time to ensure the safety of teachers by placing them on the priority list for COVID-19 inoculation. “It must be noted that the education sector recorded unprecedented numbers of educators and support staff in education who succumbed to COVID-19. Specifically, a total of 207 educators and support staff in education succumbed, and among all the various sectors of labour in the country, this is a record number. This goes to tell how precarious the teaching and learning environment is in the context of COVID-19. Learning institutions proved to be super-spreaders of COVID-19 and educators became highly exposed and vulnerable to COVID-19.
Unfortunately, Your Excellency, even with these glaring facts, it had to take a call by educators’ trade unions that teachers should not return to schools without being vaccinated for government to prioritise their vaccination, and that was after a considerable number of educators and support staff in education had already succumbed to the scourge.
This, Your Excellency, is the reason why we had called, and we still are calling upon the powers that be, that educators and support staff in education be declared front line workers and in cases of such a scourge, they should be provided PPEs and an accompanying risk allowance,” he said. Motshegwa further said when President Mokgweetsi Masisi took office, he promised the nation that his government would drive to have a knowledge-based economy, an endeavour the trade unions for educators appreciated and acknowledged. "To achieve this feat in our view, there is an urgent need for the radical transformation of our education system for it to be digitalised and technology-driven.
However, we see very little of that on the ground. Over and above that, as a country, we need to invest in capacitating our teachers to enable them to drive this feat of a knowledge-based economy, but the reality on the ground on this is to the contrary," he said. Vice President Slumber Tsogwane said teachers throughout the country’s development journey have always distinguished themselves as pacesetters. “Well before our independence, the toils and remarkable exploits of teachers paved the beaten path of our nation, building, and economic development. Indeed, the footsteps ordering our walk today as a country, follow the clear signposts left behind by the selfless and the dedicated forebearers as well as fraternal compatriots alike in the teaching service,” he said. He told the gathering that government through the SmartBots connectivity project is aggressively rolling out the village connectivity initiative to community centres. “Schools are among our primary targets for this Wi-Fi connectivity. As of May 9, 70.58% of installation was completed with further sites representing 10.81% planned to come on stream by June 30.
The Wi-Fi connectivity in schools is expected to expand access to online resources by teachers, instructors, and learners alike. This will build more resilience and adaptability in the conduct of teaching and learning in our schools when faced with disasters. Government is committed to ensuring that Botswana moves forward to become a knowledge-based economy. ICT and the digitisation of education will help drive this change. Our commitment to propel Botswana to high-income status requires an educator that will impart critical knowledge, promote innovation and creativity amongst learners for the economy to thrive,” he said.