From the onset the exams have been mired in controversy. Teachers and the examinations authority, the Botswana Examinations Council (BEC), could not agree on suitable terms for both invigilation and marking fees.
There was a lot of finger pointing with the BEC accusing the teachers of being intransigent while the teachers accused BEC of being insensitive to their needs to the point of bullying them into over-exploitation. The impasse could not be resolved until the BEC decided to employ retired teachers and temporary invigilators. Even with this arrangement it will be fair to say that it was not smooth sailing. A lot of media space was taken up by the serial blunders that were committed during the invigilation of the examinations. Some examinations were not written on the scheduled dates. Some students were beaten during the examinations. Some papers had to be postponed because they had been leaked and this seemed to be a common problem.
