BEC advertises invigilation posts

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Wednesday September 22, 2010 00:00

Yesterday a BEC advertisement was published calling for people to apply to be invigilators. This follows a boycott by teachers who are demanding that BEC pay them P150 per hour for invigilation and not P30 as currently offered. The teachers have also demanded that the chief invigilators who are headmasters be paid P10,000 and not P5,500 as offered by the examination council. BEC and the teachers unions have since had an impasse after BEC abandoned the negotiation talk of the working Memorandum of Understanding.

 The Botswana Secondary Teachers Union (BOSETU) has stated that it is a crime for BEC to advertise for non-teachers to invigilate the exams. 'Can you imagine what would happen if a person who is not a teacher is told to take control of a school, while the school head is there? Some of them may be retired officers who have never been in the teaching profession and this automatically puts the credibility of the examinations into question,' BOSETU's deputy secretary general and chief negotiator Tobokani Rari said. 

He revealed that since BEC does not want to involve the teachers and 'chooses to gamble with the students' future we will mobilise and lobby parents and other interested stakeholders to put pressure on BEC.'

On her part, the BEC Executive Secretary Serara Moahi said advertising the posts is one of their options. 'At this stage my opinion does not matter but what matters is the situation before us. If the teachers are not available we will fill those posts with  people from outside. Our interest is to ensure that examinations are written,' Moahi said.

She explained that for chief invigilators it would depend on whether the headmasters are interested or else someone else will take over the overseeing of the invigilation.

The Botswana Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) has since met with the Minister of Education to discuss the implications of the current impasse between BEC and the teachers unions and offered their services as mediators.