Rari dismisses division of MoESD into three
Chakalisa Dube | Thursday March 10, 2016 16:31
BOSETU secretary general Tobokani Rari said their union does not agree with the suggestion by Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) that MoESD should be divided into three ministries.
BOPEU recently proposed that the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors should be housed under three separate ministries.
“If the Ministry does not deal with policy and legislative issues, and issues of teacher welfare, then we contend that even with three ministries, we are bound to remain in crisis,” Rari said yesterday in a written response to Mmegi.
Rari said BOSETU believes that critical issues such as the government policy of automatic progression of students with the aim of catapulting all students towards academic theoretical education irrespective of capability to attain the education for All (EFA) goals, has contributed significantly to the degrading standards of education.
“Our considered view as the union on this matter is that, the education system in the country should promote a two–tier system where theoretical academic orientation education is not the main emphasis as is the case now.”
He added, “We advocate for a system where the same emphasis and opportunities are given to students to pursue either the vocational educational or the academic theoretical education.
This two – tier system of education would provide for dual pathways in which, during the early years, talent and potential are identified and students are channelled to the relevant persuasion and orientation”.
In that regard, Rari said vocational education would be given equal status with academic theoretical education.
“The current situation is such that the vocational education is regarded as an education for failures and such institutions as brigades and vocational training centres are now being stigmatised,” he said.
In order for the result to improve, class sizes in elementary and secondary schools should be reduced so that teachers manage them effectively, he said.
He noted that the ‘Revised National Education Policy of 1994’ recommended that class sizes be reduced to 35 in elementary schools and 30 in secondary schools.
Even though government adopted the recommendation, it was never implemented, and on the contrary, classes keep on increasing as some schools have 50 students in a class, according to Rari.
“The large class sizes have adversely affected the quality of education in this country.”
The BOSETU secretary general also said that the union’s view is that education has gone down because government is concentrating more on inspectorate to the negligence and detriment of in - service training of teachers.
“Government should develop and adopt a clear in – service policy. BOSETU will this year campaign vigorously to have government adopt a clear cut guiding principle on in - service training for teachers,” he said.
He said it is quite evident from the recently released Junior Certificate final examination results that schools in towns and major villages are doing significantly well when compared to schools in the far–flung areas in the not so developed areas of this country.
He attributed the trend to allocation of fewer resources by government to schools in far-flung areas.
“It is common cause that such disparity in terms of resources needs to be addressed,” he said.
He added that shortage and late supply of resources to schools by government has also led to poor performance by students.
“The reduction of the hours of work for teachers as stipulated in Public Service Act which was crafted in line with ‘International Labour Standards’, meant the contact time between the teachers and students reduced dramatically, hence affecting productivity of teachers at the workplace,” said Rari.
As per the Public Act No. 30 of 2008 enacted in 2010, teachers now work for eight hours a day, different from the previous dispensation whereupon they were working for close to 12 hours a day.