BOFEPUSU hails Matambo for respecting PSBC
Innocent Selatlhwa | Wednesday February 3, 2016 17:03
“As a federation we are pleased that for the second year running the government has recognised the fact that the prerogative to bargain for and negotiate the conditions of service for the public service is the domain of the Public Service Bargaining Council (PSBC). For that we applaud government.”
“We however on a cautionary note would like to point out that the minister should not have bothered with stressing the lack of money when he was talking about the public service salaries as that amounts to preemptory remarks,” said Rari.
He said issues of economic growth and lack of money should be left to the council to deal with.
Rari said as the Botswana Sector of Educators Trade Union (BOSETU), they are happy that the Ministry of Education and Skills Development received the highest chunk of the recurrent budget.
Rari however said their view is that, though it is good that the ministry has received the highest recurrent budget, what matters most is whether the ministry is putting the money to the right priorities that could turn the education system around.
Rari said for the past four years the ministry has been receiving the largest chunk but that is not reflected in the quality of the students’ results. He said the final year results across all streams have been dwindling every year for five years and it shows that the money is not put to good use in terms of priorities.
“We strongly feel that for instance such monies should be channelled into reducing class sizes which are an impediment to achieving good results.
The money should go to building more classes and hiring more teachers to split large classes. This unfortunately is not seen as priority by the ministry,” he said.