Some got what they wanted while others might have been left with a feeling of dejection. As a newspaper, our interest has been in the area of education, which has been besieged by problems, especially in the administration of examinations particularly for junior and senior secondary schools. At first, the education crisis seemed more like a labour relations issue between teachers and the Botswana Examinations Council which we thought should have been resolved before the examinations begun. As we all know, the Primary and JC examinations have now been completed. Even the official Botswana Daily News reported widespread crises in the administration of the examinations. At least two examination papers have been rescheduled; to say nothing of the serial bungling that resulted in students writing the wrong papers.
Seeing that the responsible minister was 'absent', we thought the President would weigh in to forestall the crisis that had been threatening to make nonsense of our education system. Not Khama. In his State of the Nation speech yesterday, the President actually gave the scandalous affair of the 2010 examinations a clean bill of health! In his view, the series of fatal problems experienced during these examinations were so negligible that he has concluded that they have been carried out successfully. Infact, President Khama says the media is to be blamed should there be any lingering doubt regarding the conduct of the examinations! Regardless of available evidence to the contrary, Khama maintains that the exams are running properly with the assistance of retired and unemployed teachers.
