Teachers demand MoU for invigilating

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Thursday August 26, 2010 00:00

Speaking at a joint press briefing by the Botswana Secondary Teachers Union (BOSETU) and Botswana Teachers Union (BTU) held at Gaborone Hotel yesterday, BOSETU's deputy secretary general, Tobokani Rari, said that teachers would not be obliged to invigilate.

'And here we are not talking about whether it is perceived to be the teachers' job or not because the courts have pronounced that it is clearly not our job,' Rari said.

He said that last year's agreement was only interim and it elapsed in December.

'A crisis is looming now that we no longer have any understanding. Nothing has been crafted to ensure that we have an understanding with the Botswana Examinations Council,' Rari said, revealing that they have written many letters to the Ministry of Education and BEC,'which they sat on'. 

'They called us for a meeting where we agreed that the best way to progress is to have a Memorandum of Understanding but the process is painfully sluggish. If by the beginning of the first examinations which is in October there is nothing in place then teachers will not invigilate those exams,' he said. 

On other issues, the BTU president, Simon Mapolelo, said the two unions have resolved to work together in advocating for their common issues.

Shandukani Hlabano of BOSETU said that they have gone on a soul-searching exercise and realised that advocating for the same issues while in different camps was not working to their advantage.

He said the main challenge they have with providing quality education is having teachers' welfare being compromised.

'Quality of education and teachers' welfare is intertwined because if the welfare of the teachers is compromised then the quality of education will be compromised,' he said, adding that it is time that government invested heavily in education to grow and diversify the economy.