BOTEPCO to penalise unregistered teachers
Larona Makhaiza | Monday June 10, 2024 07:56
“Teachers who have not registered with BOTEPCO will be charged either P5, 000 or three-months imprisonment while the organisation will be charged P50, 000 or face 12 months’ imprisonment for hiring teachers that are not registered with BOTEPCO. Understand that these charges can be applied at the same time,” Dingalo warned during a media briefing this week. Dingalo assured teachers at large that the process of registration and licensing is a procedure done to professionalise the teaching profession in Botswana. He further emphasised that this is done to make sure that teaching in Botswana meets international standards. BOTEPCO's mandate as a council is to professionalise the teaching profession in Botswana and one of their strategies is registration and licensing of teachers in Botswana.
BOTEPCO was established in 2019 under the now Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MESD). “Our mandate as BOTEPCO is to advance teacher professionalism,” Dingalo said. Dingalo highlighted that as the council plans to hasten the registration and licensing of teachers, BOTEPCO has made great strides on the issue as they have currently developed a system. “As BOTEPCO we want to go paperless and register teachers digitally. One thing that I believe in is digitalisation. So, government has funded us handsomely in the registration and licensing of teachers hence why we have developed a platform for registration of teachers,” he said.
The BOTEPCO Registrar pointed out that the organisation is motivated to go paperless because not only will that save them time but also money. Meanwhile, Dingalo elaborated that the system is not yet ready to commence the registration and licensing of teachers as the system is at an infant stage. “This is the system that we are currently developing, and its project kick-started in January 2024 and remember this is a continuous thing,” he said. In the issue of internet connectivity being a challenge in some areas across the country, BOTEPCO has assured that it will assist where it can as they are aware that some may be less privileged.