BOSETU accuses BEC for exploiting teachers
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Monday December 10, 2018 12:28
BOSETU secretary general Tobokani Rari said BEC is subjecting teachers to indecent, exploitative and deplorable working conditions. He said it has become a tolerable practice and culture by the BEC, that every single marking session should be marred with controversies and disputes arising from unresolved issues of conditions of service with respect to the marking process.
Rari said most examiners who have converged in Gaborone since December 3, 2018, downed their pens in protest of issues relating to their conditions of service, which BEC is failing to address. During the moderation exercises this year, both Home Economics, Business Studies and Accounts, Rari said the same protest was experienced, when examiners boycotted the process.
“We find it quite disturbing and regrettable that in all these controversies and disputes, the BEC becomes sluggishly reluctant to address the issues at hand, resulting in boycotts and stoppage of the marking process. It is obvious that these controversies and disputes arising out of the dissatisfactions by the Examiners cause some anxiety, undue pressure and low moral on the examiners themselves, hence compromising their dedication, efficiency and effectiveness,” he said.
The unionist pointed out that those disputes obviously took some significant time before they were resolved, and as a result, eating away the valuable marking time of the examiners, and compromising the quality of marking, as examiners would now be working under duress. He further called on upon the BEC to understand and appreciate the pivotal and sensitive role that the Parliament of Botswana has given to it, that of deciding on the future of Batswana children saying it was an honourous task that needed to be done with due care and meticulously without some controversy bedeviling it.
Rari said that it looked like the BEC does not understand that examinations were sacred because they were passport to the future success for those young people, and as such, they need to be administered in a judicious manner, without any suspicions of shoddy work that could result in the pollution and contamination of the results.
“We have held several times that, to avoid impasses that crop up during marking, that obviously end up compromising the quality of the results, BEC should subject itself to an engagement with the teacher trade unions. An engagement that would culminate in an agreement of the conditions of service of the examiners. BEC has reneged on the terms of the MoU that was signed in 2016 with the teacher trade unions and has literally refused to engage. Under the current situation, conditions of service for markers are solely decided by BEC without either the unions or the markers themselves, hence these frequent impasses,” he said.
Rari also expressed a great disappointment that in the midst of these controversies, the Minister of Basic Education, remained silent while the future of young innocent children hanged in the balance, owing to BEC’s incompetence in managing the marking of Examinations.
He further called upon the Minister Bagalatia Arone whom he said the custody of this country’s education lies, to move swiftly and reign in the BEC that seems to have now become a perpetual errant and a law unto itself. He further appealed to members of the public to demand answers from the BEC as the credibility of the marking process and the results thereof remain suspect, hence, having the potential to affect the future of their children.