Private companies to construct teachers houses

Pini Bothoko | Monday September 28, 2015 15:45

The houses will be constructed in open spaces around schools by companies at their own cost. The ministry will then rent the houses with a view of owning them permanently once the companies have recovered construction costs and made profit.

Education assistant minister, Moiseraela Goya said that the idea to engage companies is still at its infancy. Goya revealed this recently when addressing the school management and Parents Teachers Association (PTA) of Tlhalogang Junior Secondary School (JSS) here. 

He disclosed that government currently does not have money to construct houses for its employees and the situation is a national crisis. The school management had raised a concern over shortage of accommodation for their staff.

“Shortage of accommodation is a national crisis affecting all government departments. That is why we now want to partner with private companies,” he said.

“Some of our teachers stay in inhospitable houses due to lack of accommodation. This does not impress us because the condition they live in might affect their output,” said Goya. He said should the initiative to engage private companies come to pass, it would show government’s commitment to improve welfare of teachers.

Goya said government, through their partnership with Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC), has been trying to address the accommodation crisis for teachers but it still remains a challenge.

“We have an agreement with BHC to give us a portion of the houses they build anywhere so that we can accommodate our staff but even the corporation itself is also faced with money constraints to construct more houses,” said Goya.

He added that government has been trying to addresses the accommodation crisis for teachers by constructing LA2 houses through Ipelegeng in some areas around the country.

Tlhalogang is one of the schools that have been hard hit by shortage of accommodation. The school has 80 teachers but has only 23 staff houses to accommodate them.