BOFEPUSU takes on Arone

Oarabile Mosikare | Thursday February 27, 2014 15:40

In a morning Duma Fm programme Arone said he personally supports the move in which teachers will be converted to a professional autonomous like it is happening in Kenya. He later reiterated his opinion in an interview with Mmegi that an autonomous body understands how the teachers work. “These are my personal views. Kenya is the only country I know that we can associate ourselves with on education issues,” said the Okavango Member of Parliament who is also a former secondary school teacher.

Arone said as long as the teachers are regulated by the PSA, the education system would never resolve its problematic issues. He said in Kenya there are more than 300,000 teachers and they do not experience the problems that are perennial in the education sector here. In response the BOFEPUSU deputy secretary general Ketlhalefile Motshegwa said that Arone’s idea was problematic.

Motshegwa explained that by converting the teachers to the Teaching Service Act (TSA) was tantamount to distorting the collective bargaining. “You cannot go back to the old practice that violates international and domestic laws,” he said. He said instead they should draft an article that regulates a specific category. He accused the executive of using opposition MPs like Arone to disregard industrial democracy and harmony. “We will fight pound by pound and hold the government accountable. It is something Parliament should not entertain.

We are extremely disappointed by Arone’s remarks that are uninformed, more so that he is a former teacher and the Parliamentary Education Committee chairperson.”  He acknowledged that the examination results in public schools were poor because of the volatility of relationship between teachers and the employer.  He also said what contributed to the poor results is that teachers work eight hours a day. “This has reduced contact time between a teacher and students during normal working hours.”