Chaotic

GALE NGAKANE
Correspondent | Monday October 4, 2010 00:00

By Monday afternoon, Mmegi had not heard whether the situation has been brought to normal or not.

The student, who could not identify himself for fear of victimisation, was boarding a taxi at the bus rank by 9am heading to the school from home.

'I stay in Area L (on the northern part of the city) but I was at school at 7am, but there was nothing happening, so I decided to dash home to pick up something.  That has been the situation since beginning of this week,' said the teenager.

When Mmegi arrived at the school at 10am on Friday, indeed it was a chaotic scene with some students lazing in the sun, others in a motley crue by the school gate while teachers were running helter skelter apparently trying to bring normalcy to the situation.

The headmaster, Abraham Senabye, was huddled head to head in his office with some senior teachers, also trying to map the way forward.

When asked for comment, he immediately referred Mmegi to a senior official from the Ministry of Education and Skill's Development by the name of Phuthego who was said to be in a meeting with some students in the school library. 'You can wait for him in the reception area,' said Senabye, but two hours later, the official had not emerged from the meeting.

An attempt to call him four hours later at the office was met with: 'I am still in a meeting.' He however referred me to the director, Molebi Neo Morolong who promptly requested a questionnaire.

Mmegi wanted Morolong to confirm meetings that had reportedly been held since Thursday and whether they were held to try and bring sanity to the situation at the school.

By Monday this week, there were reports that the meetings have since been moved to Ntshe House, though it could not be immediately verified. Students at the school, however, said nothing has changed.

Senabye rebuffed any attempt to get him to shed light on the situation. He simply said Mmegi should speak to authorities at the Ministry.

As one of the schools in the country currently implementing the double shift system, FSSS is said to have been hard hit by the controversy surrounding the change in the hours of teachers reporting for work.

A teacher, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Friday that for five days up to Friday, there has never been Period One as it clashed with the new time that is being introduced by the Botswana Secondary Teachers' Union (BOSETU) in conjunction with the Botswana Teachers' Union (BTU).

'I do not know what will happen if the situation is left to go on the way it is. Other than that, up to this point, students have lost valuable time in lessons.

'It (the time) may never be replaced. But it is the stubbornness of the Teaching Service Management (TSM) because all they had to do was align the timetable to the new times.

'Most of all I shudder to think what will happen to students doing afternoon shifts as well as sports. Classes are going to be badly disrupted and as for sports, it is as good as if it has been scrapped all together.

'No teacher will be seen supervising it, otherwise they will have to be paid,' said the teacher who was as furtive as possible in his conversation with me in the school reception area.

In actual fact, periods, which before lasted 40 minutes are, reportedly said to be now only taking 15 minutes. BOSETU and its partner in arms, BTU have instructed teachers to report for work at 7.30am instead of the usual hour earlier 'to align them (the times) with the rest of the public service.'

The unions also explained that their members are also entitled to one-hour lunchtime, from quarter to one to quarter to two.

Said the letter stamped September 19 and addressed to all regional chairpersons, shop stewards and general membership:

'Those on duty should abandon lunch supervision if it falls within the lunch hour as it is their entitlement to go for lunch break.

'If the employer or agents of the employer direct that members of the two unions work outside the eight hour working period per day, they should know that by so doing, they are authorising overtime and they should be ready to effect payment.' 

Morolong was still to respond to the Mmegi questionnaire at the time of writing.