Live within your means - exhorts Muzila
Pini Bothoko | Tuesday November 22, 2016 17:35
Muzila said the majority of teachers are swimming in debt and their monthly expenditure is higher than their salaries.
Addressing last week’s national secondary school heads conference held in the second city, the mayor said most teachers depend purely on loans and live a frustrated life because they are overwhelmed by debts.
She pleaded with school heads to consider holding staff meetings to discuss issues of financial management.
“There is a need for teachers to be encouraged to balance their expenses with their salaries. I have discovered that the majority of teachers come to class stressed and fail to deliver hence the decline in results,” Muzila said.
She said for years, results had shown a steady decline and the turmoil in teachers’ personal lives was a major contributor.
“The learners are tomorrow’s leaders and should have a bright future ahead of them. However, they can only achieve their dreams if they are given the best education.”
She said there is a need for teachers to learn to budget properly and live a stress-free life in order to be productive.
“Living beyond your means damages one’s self-esteem and such an individual can end up in financial ruin and embarrassment. Usually people who exceed their monthly budgets do so to appear like they have more money than they actually do,” Muzila said.
The mayor said she suspected most teachers were neglecting saving their money or putting it in pensions, because they did not have enough left over at the end of the month.
Chairperson of the national secondary school heads conference, Lapologang Kolagano conceded that there is a need for teachers to be sensitised on financial management.
“It should concern us that our personal lives are blamed for the decline in results. We need to change our attitude towards how we handle money and learn to budget properly,” said Kolagano.
He added: “Being stressed affects one’s thinking and so if a teacher comes to class stressed due to debts, it will surely impact negatively on his or her job hence the reduction in production”.
He said school heads need to carry out a thorough analysis of the trend in exam results and find ways of reversing the decline.