Teachers abandon running students

Sharon Mathala | Tuesday February 18, 2014 16:11

 

Things came to a halt when teachers who had already turned up at Mogoditshane Senior Secondary were told that they were going to be paid 50% of the overtime hours accrued while the other 50% will be compensated in kind - with days off.

When Mmegi arrived at the school, teachers were in a meeting while students were busy warming up hoping that they would soon be on the tracks.

Mmegi is in possession of the name of the Education Officer, based in Mogoditshane, who was apparently responsible for the fiasco.

“This was in spite of the fact that teachers had signed the annexure 1 form at their various schools, which authorised them to undertake overtime and be paid 100% of the total hours accrued in monetary form,” said one teacher, who could not reveal his identity.

As if that was not enough, when teachers were supposed to get into the buses ferrying students back to their stations, a message from the same Education officer came in, informing teachers not to use government vehicles back to their stations.

Meanwhile the same debacle affected the Tswapong North and Boteti sub regions, where the competitions also failed to proceed. The teachers demanded to be remunerated 100% of the total overtime hours worked in monetary form.

Botswana Sectors of Educators Union  (BOSETU) secretary general Tobokanai Rari said what happened in Mogoditshane senior is unfortunate, but also embarrassing.

“It exposes mediocre decisions that are made by some officials in the ministry. How could an officer call off competitions for which teachers have put so much effort in preparing, just from the comfort of her office,” he said.

He said they expect those teachers to be paid for the time they spent before they were told to abandon the games.

“We are going to see to it that those teachers be refunded costs incurred when returning to their duty stations as they were told not to board government vehicles. The Employment Act, Section 94 is clear and unambiguous, it places the prerogative of choice on an employee when it comes to how an employee should be remunerated after offering service beyond normal working hours,” he said.

Rari said the teachers unions had long proposed a 10 hours working day which translates to a six day week and a 26 day month as a permanent solution to this issue of teachers hours of work.

Efforts to get a response from the Ministry of Education, Skills and Development (MoESD) regarding the matter were futile at the time of press.

“I do not have information on the issue as soon as I do I will answer all of the questions,” said Silas Sehularo at the Public Relations Office.