The place of teacher trade unions

Tshwarelo Hosia | Monday August 7, 2023 06:00

The truth of the matter is that the system of education had coexisted peacefully with the Botswana Teachers Union (BTU), the oldest among the existing crop of teacher trade union movements. This is not to suggest that it was a problem free relationship made in heaven. History has recorded that it was a healthy affair anchored on mutual respect but as the nature and purpose of trade unionism dictate, it was a relationship characterised by periodic skirmishes and exchange of fire.

However, it was the grand entrance into the education system of the more radical Botswana Federation of Secondary School Teachers (BOFESETE) which somewhat ruffled feathers, creating anxiety, panic and fear in the process. The new kid on the block thrived amidst adversity and a host of other challenges. It depended in the main on the leadership of relatively young and gifted leaders of the likes of the late Serake Mfolwe, Odirile Gabasiane and Baboloki Tlale. These were arguably the most refined leaders the education system has ever produced.

These were leaders who came into the union movement with a background of having accomplished a lot in both instructional - pedagogic realm and outside the classroom. It was small wonder when the majority of the leadership were subsequently plucked out of the classroom and rewarded handsomely with positions of leadership both locally and abroad. But some critics saw a sinister motive in this move. It was suspected that the ‘shake up’ at the apex of the union movement was partly intended to take the steam out of the union movement and slow down the momentum. But as stated, in all fairness, the positions that these men assumed were well deserved, earned purely on merit.

The attitude of the system, however unfair it might have been, appeared understandable. All of sudden school leaders who previously reigned as the ‘undisputable kings of the ring’ now had to wrestle on a day-to-day basis with unionised teachers, highly conscious of their rights, responsibilities and privileges. It was hard to come to terms with what looked like some of unsolicited and non-negotiated coalition government.

The monopoly of power, which schools principals had enjoyed over the years, ended abruptly and a parallel voice of authority came into the scene and without mincing words or hesitation made its presence felt. The terrain in so far as school management was concerned became difficult and unfortunately for the system, many school principals were not adequately prepared to navigate this new development.

To fully make their presence felt and inspired by a desire to cater for the welfare of their members, all the Union movements acted in unison to deploy in almost every school, young shop stewards armed with a rich knowledge of industrial relations and disciplinary procedures and this was a new phenomenon, unprecedented in the history of the education system in our jurisdiction.

Teachers’ newly found power became a constant menace to school administrators. The principal ceased becoming a source of all teachers needed to know and do in their execution of duties. Instead they developed a new culture of cross examining whatever story they encountered in their schools against notes from their unions. Mutual suspicions, accusations and counter accusations were to be the order of the day for a considerable length of time. Attitudes hardened but this was not enough to cow the Union movement into submission or break its indefatigable spirit. Today the cold war that greeted the arrival of unions has given way to a much more vigorous, healthy and productive relationship.

It is noted with a sigh of relief that the tension has since thawed and to date teacher trade unionism has metamorphosed into a real and formidable friend of the education system.

Today it is a completely new ball game altogether. Teacher unions have raised the bar and have become big picture thinkers. The union movement has grown big and has become intentional in the shaping of the destiny of the country. It has graduated from focusing narrowly on collective bargaining for improvement of the working conditions of its members but has taken a conscious and deliberate decision to be a nation builder par excellence. The teacher union movement has set itself ambitious, audacious and multi-dimensional tasks.

This is good for the nation because the teacher union movement has positioned itself to play a significant role in the fulfilment of some of the goals identified in the National Development Plans such as poverty alleviation, raising academic achievement levels, expanding access to education, supporting the digitalisation drive, job creation and giving a dignified existence to the elderly and other vulnerable sections of our population.

As charity begins at home, the unions have developed a good partnership with school managers to rein in wayward elements in the teaching profession and have made it clear that they would not condone substandard performance. This is soothing. Recently, the BTU successfully mounted an induction workshop for its members in the Selebi-Phikwe Education Sub Region. And among the topics which featured prominently was financial literacy. The workshop recognised that teachers just like other public servants are no angels and as such capable of making decisions which might place their personal and professional lives at risk.

The financial literacy programme dealt with the issues of financial discipline and the dangers of over committing one’s resources. This was a noble intervention because the noble teaching profession is expected to lead the society and their students by example and be seen to be making right and prudent decisions which would help teachers to escape the vicious cycle of poverty while in service and upon retirement from the public service. Not wanting to be left behind, the BOSETU team visited Selebi-Phikwe a couple of months ago to launch its school digitisation drive, lending support to the government’s digitisation agenda.

BOSETU is equally moved by a desire to address issues of inadequate teaching and learning materials in order to reverse the trend of declining academic achievement levels. Thanks to BOSETU efforts, students can now access remedial lessons online to beef up what they would have learnt in their schools. One is also conscious of the existence of a BOSETU bursary fund intended to promote teacher professional development.

Frankly speaking, government does not have all the resources needed to fulfil the ever growing numbers of teachers desiring to further their studies. This kind of gesture from the Unions is a clear indication of the desirability of partnership in education. Education is a public good and is too important a service to be left in the hands of government alone.

The role of unions in the development of Botswana’s education landscape is clear and pronounced. There is no turning back. If government is overburdened with the responsibility of providing for schools, unions should in future explore of ways of increasing their involvement in public schools and the possibility of a takeover of some of the institutions should not be ruled out. It cannot be a farfetched idea. After all, this is what mind set shift is all about!