Mogo teachers reject hostels

PETER MADIYA
Correspondent | Tuesday August 30, 2011 00:00

Now the Mogoditshane Senior Secondary School teachers have been provided a place to sleep, but they will not accept it. They say the 'flats' that the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD has chosen for them as temporary lodging are dilapidated and not suitable for adults, which has resulted in the school officials and MoESD looking for different accommodation.

The 'flats' are really hostels that were previously used by AAT brigade students. The ministry, has said through the school head, that the teachers could use the hostels while the ministry finds them proper accommodation but the teachers who went to inspect the flats came back angry.

'Hostels are for school boys and girls. As teachers, we are adults and most of us have families. It's utter nonsense to be treated in this fashion as most of us never volunteered to be transferred to the new school in the first place', said one of the teachers.  School head Belpert Kauraisa says however that the decision to temporarily house the teachers at the hostel was not done out of disrespect. The school simply did not have a choice.

 'As we speak, we are looking for better flats and hostels on a temporary basis. We are not going to force them to occupy any building they feel is not habitable...but we are not yet out of the woods as the search for suitable accommodation is still ongoing', he said. Kauraisa said that it was difficult to find suitable accommodation in Gaborone and its environs, and that whenever it became available, it was expensive. (Sila Press Agency)