Teachers Are Abusing Overtime

Correspondent | Monday August 31, 2015 15:36

 

This action was tantamount to throwing a single bone  to a group  of hungry dogs because it has created some unbearable conflict in some schools.

Some ever broke and uninformed teachers thought and still believe the money was meant  for everyone regardless of the genuine need to work overtime.

Some of these teachers started creating unnecessary work and requested for long  and abnormal hours including Saturdays and Sundays.   For the first time in Botswana teachers ant to teach  from Monday to Sunday. This is psychologically and  physically unhealthy for the poor  students who do not  understand the hidden agenda.

In a small school where I teach, a lot of time is spent gossiping, recruiting people to one side or the other, planning defences and navigating the drama. This conflict is impacting the entire small school negatively.  I found out that  some top and middle managers were recruiting us to  take their sides against  the poor school head who wants to regulate the funds as per  the instruction of the ministry.  I hate it because these people are pushing their agenda and it has  created a negative impact on our image.

At the beginning of this fracas I thought they were  doing  the right thing to fight for our rights but later I realised that they were not being professional and they were undermining our integrity and disrespecting the school head. I know that  people who are similar get along better, but that leads to other problems like group-think.

One cannot grow in an environment where  you are  made to critic and politicise all decision and initiatives taken by the  school head.  It is  even embarrassing to realise that this negativity is spearheaded by some desperate senior managers who were supposed to  support the school head.

It is high time the ministry of Education considers hours of work for teachers, or else some of these desperate managers and teachers will kill the school heads physically or even through witchcraft.

 

Yours  faithfully

Sola Manyonda