JC results deferred to february

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Monday December 20, 2010 00:00

 

The ministry is unable to release the examination results on course work because the teachers did not pass them on.

The meeting was chaired by the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, Grace Muzila, and attended by her deputy permanent secretaries and the leaders of the Botswana Secondary Teachers Union (BOSETU) and the Botswana Teachers Union (BTU).

According the BOSETU's publicist, Mogomotsi Motshegwe, the meeting agreed that because the course work results were already there before the examinations started, they could be released.

He revealed that they agreed that the course work would be released for a fee of P15 per student per subject.

He said the ministry also agreed that all the letters written to the teachers demanding the course work results from the permanent secretary, the regional directors and the school heads will be withdrawn unconditionally.

'They also agreed that no teachers shall be charged with refusing to hand in course work results,' he said, adding that it was also agreed that the marks will be handed in after the schools re-opened for first term in January 2011 and no teacher shall be called from their vacation to submit the marks.

'This has demonstrated that we are very understanding and if discussions are done in good faith we are ready to agree on different terms as long as there is no boasting on any of the parties seating around the table. We view this as a turning point as the students can seat back and know that their results would be released,' Motshegwe said, commending the MoE for seeing it proper to approach the teachers unions when the Botswana Examinations Council failed to do so.

This follows an impasse between the teachers unions and BEC when they failed to reach a working Memorandum of Understanding on the invigilation of external 2010 examinations.  Since then the teachers refused to hand in course work marks and the invigilation, which temporary invigilators engaged by BEC did were marred by controversy and scandals.

Meanwhile in their Christmas message, President of BOSETU Shandukani Hlabano said that the healing process would deal with what made them all make decisions that they have made.

'In one of the many fliers to the media we erroneously stated that we would as BTU and BOSETU pay legal fees for any parents who would institute legal proceedings against BEC. That assertion is hereby withdrawn because it would be practically impossible to do so,' he said adding that both BOSETU and BTU would not terminate membership of those who went for marking this year as stated earlier.  'It is during the healing process that such matters would be addressed,' he said.