Teacher unions, BEC seal marriage
Baboki Kayawe | Friday September 29, 2017 10:46
For years, there has not been a platform for the two to legally engage since the 2009 court ruling, which pronounced marking and invigilation as non-teaching duties thereby requiring that unions, representing their members negotiate on fee structures and other logistics relating to those services.
Both union leaders and BEC management have hailed the agreement as landmark.
Botswana Sectors of Educators Trade Union (BOSETU) spokesperson Edwin Maitshoko said, “with such an agreement in place, teacher unions are now empowered to engage the BEC on all conditions of service of examinations going forward. As a consequence, parties shared proposals for the 2017 examiners’ rates and conditions of service”.
The framework, which has been absent for years and the education ministry assumed the role of middleman in the whole affair; regulates the relationship between the parties in as far as engaging each other over the terms and conditions of service for teachers during marking and moderation of external examination are concerned.
Justice Mpaphi Phumaphi’s judgment declared invigilation and supervision of external national examinations did not fall within the ambit of the duties of teachers and that therefore they could not be compelled to invigilate or supervise external examinations.
Subsequently, attempts were made in 2010 for a working relationship between trade unions and BEC but they collapsed. As a result, teachers have been engaged by the BEC on their own accord under condition solely decided by the BEC without input of trade unions on behalf of their members.
This manifested in the 2010 exams debacle in which teachers boycotted invigilation. At the time students across the primary and secondary level scheduled to take their examinations nearly failed to sit for their final examinations, after talks between teacher unions and BEC collapsed. Ultimately, results were released late with some course work marks reported missing and a record high dismal performance occurred. A commission of inquiry into the debacle was later established to look into the matter.