Nagging issues in teaching
| Monday October 6, 2014 06:59
It lived up to its vibrancy in articulating the concerns of teachers, particularly secondary school teachers. One notable policy proposal submitted to government was parallel progression. This policy direction was supported by Tsa Badiri Consultancy and Judge De Villiers Commission which recommended that the teaching cadre, among others, should have a separate salary structure owing to its large numbers. The government appeared ready to implement the new structure but reneged in1999. This led to a strike in 2002. Other issues bedeviling teaching in Botswana include disruptive behavior by students, which has been found to be a major factor which contributes to stress, demoralisation and attrition of teachers in education.
Poor remuneration as a cause of stress is frequently expressed by teachers. Poor working conditions, among others, include working long unsociable hours, poor remuneration (Joseph, 2000). Teaching lacks a career structure that opens up more promotional opportunities (Motswakae, 1996).
Teachers go into teaching as a last resort due to its unattractive package. The report on National Commission on Education (RNCE (1993) shares this view. The report recommended improved career structure and conditions of service. “The need for improved conditions of service, including improved salaries, adequate and suitable housing “(RNCE, 1993.p.342, RNPE, 1994). Professors Sheldon Weeks and Mautle (1996) recommended that teachers should progress to be at par with the principal.
A study by FWU and Wang (2002) conducted in 53 developed and developing countries found that teachers in Taiwan are about 80% happy in both metropolitan and rural arrears. They were not only happy about making a difference in students’ lives, but happy about handsome compensation packages, relatively low stress and cooperation from parents and community.A policy on recruitment and retention for teachers in Taiwan spelt out provision of handsome packages of incentives including tuition waivers, free accommodation, subsidies for clothing, exemption from income tax and entry salary 25% higher (FWU &Wang, 2002).
It is absolutely imperative for teachers’ welfare issues to be addressed, failure in that regards results in two critical problems: If teacher’s pay falls below a living wage, they will either leave the profession or remain in the payroll while devoting their energies to other tasks (Mulkeen, Chapman, Dejaeghere & Leu, 2007). Moonlighting.
BOSETU has failed to raise alternative policy papers to address issues afflicting teaching. It has become a union that is famous for reacting to policy pronouncements by the government. It will be a fair assessment of the union leadership to say they have created factions and rivalries in teaching. One way they have fragmented teachers is through scarce skills allowances. Negotiating for an improved remuneration for some teachers on the basis of the subjects they teach and excluding others shows lack of foresight and sows seeds of discord. Teachers in a school complement one another in ensuring successful completion of studies by students, it is a collective effort. Law graduates working for government are all entitled to scarce skills allowance, irrespective of the courses they did when studying law. A discussion around scarce skills allowance for teaching was a golden opportunity for the union to have negotiated a better deal for all teachers. This window of opportunities was mismanaged. Constitutional amendment is another clear intention by the union leadership to render the general membership powerless. The amendments have effectively excluded the general membership from voting for BOSETU leadership. The constitution, as is, has created an exclusive voting college akin to the former committee of eighteen (18) of the BDP. The BDP has abandoned this concept and extended voting rights to all its members to determine their parliamentary and council candidates. This has come to be known as buleladitswe across political divide. Bosetu leadership has compressed the democratic space in the union so as to create a coterie of friends to manipulate the general membership.
The government is hoping to cash in votes from primary school teachers, while the union leadership wanted to be voted back into power at the recently held congress at Palapye.
The recent political rhetoric by some within our leadership is an indication of immaturity which has polarised and destabilised the union further. They have been canvassing for support for some political organisation called UDC with no mandate from anybody. They got entangled in partisan politics completely derailing from their mandate of advocating for teachers’ welfare. Their conduct can best be described as that of suicide bombers.The party that they urge workers to vote for is actually a hopeless organisation. Its position on many issues affecting workers is vague and incompetent. The BCP has a clear articulation of issues affecting workers. I wish we could look at some of those in brief.
lBotswana Congress Party undertakes to restore teachers’ self-esteem and dignity by remunerating them fairly.
lMove the industrial court from Ministry of Labour and set it as a specialised court of the high court.
lFull pay for mothers on maternity leave and increase it to 14 weeks as per ILO Convention.
lIntroduce a living wage
lIntroduce compulsory pension legislation for all workers.
lIntroduce legislation on sexual harassment.
lFacilitate ownership of shares by workers in public Corporations.
This is an attractive package that on the whole answers most if not all the concerns of workers. It therefore comes as a surprise to me that some within the labour movement are traversing the country promoting hatred against a party that has taken the concerns of workers on board.
Ke weno, Morutabana .