Aggrieved teachers to petition Venson-Moitoi

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Wednesday October 13, 2010 00:00

 

Botswana Secondary Teachers Union (BOSETU) publicity secretary Mogomotsi Motshegwe said this during a press briefing on the ongoing impasse between BEC and the teachers. 

'It is very clear that Moahi has failed the nation and has failed to uphold the integrity and dignity of the examination.' He further revealed that after BEC abandoned the negotiations on the working Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) before they could even negotiate wages, BEC is spending more on the independent invigilators than it would have spent on teachers.

Motshegwe said that they were demanding to be paid P150 per hour, while BEC offered P30 and now are spending P360 per invigilator. 'What we are hearing now is that BEC is paying P30 per hour, P50 transport per day, P80 for food and P200 for a night out for those invigilating outside their places of residence,' Motshegwe said adding that BEC has hired Avis cars for BEC officers.

'They also hosted orientation workshops for those temporary invigilators and our question is: what has the teacher done for someone to go all out to make sure that they do not benefit anything if the money was supposed to be benefited by them?'

He further said that because BEC is trying to prove that they can invigilate the examinations without the input of the teachers, they would also boycott the marking. 'We cannot mark the papers if we do not know where they are coming from and whose credibility is questionable.'

For his part, BOSETU president Shandukani Hlabano said that the comparison made by BEC with Britain is unfortunate in that unlike in Botswana teachers in the United Kingdom (UK) do not retire completely from teaching. 'What is happening in schools right now shows that BEC and the Ministry of Education need the teachers.

All they are trying to do is to give the impression that teachers are irresponsible but at the bottom of their hearts they know what they said to us in that meeting where they abandoned the talks.

They were trying to show us that we are nothing before them and they can do without us,' Hlabano said.

Hlabano took a swipe at the leaders who have been quiet all the time leading to the beginning of the examinations.

'If education is going through a crisis and all the leaders across the country are quiet and not concerned it is either they do not know what education is all about or they do not care,' he said. 'To the teachers education is as important as water is to fish. It is disappointing the role that the leaders have taken in this matter.'

He further lambasted the BEC board of directors for not being effective to offer sound advice to BEC. 'You can imagine what will happen if the results do not come out well and all the leaders are still sitting back and denying that there is a problem,' Hlabano said.