BEC must honour agreement with teachers

For the past few years, the government and teachers have not been seeing eye-to-eye.

The animosity resulted in one of the teachers unions taking the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) to the High Court. The union achieved an important victory when Justice Mpaphi Phumaphi ruled  that teachers must be paid for marking national examinations. Although the High Court set a precedent, marking is always a contentious issue every year. Usually, the Botswana Examinations Council (BEC) does not live up to its obligation of paying some of the markers. This tendency to disrespect agreed contracts is repeated every year. The teachers have to suffer for several months before they are paid. This is surprising because supervision and marking of examinations are budgeted for by the examination body.  There is no reason why BEC is failing to pay teachers for work done. This uncalled for behaviour is worrisome and has polarised the relationship between teachers and the BEC. It is high time BEC put its house in order. In this scenario, it is the students that suffer the most. Supervision and marking of examinations is not the only contentious issue in the teaching profession. About two years ago, the MoESD entertained the idea of discontinuing overtime allowance for teachers. The teachers responded that they would stop performing duties after working hours. The ministry revealed that it was in talks with the Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM) to have teachers revert to the initial 10-hour schedule as overtime payments rocketed. If the ministry goes ahead to stop overtime, then it would mean school activities that occur after hours will cease. Such activities include remedial and enrichment classes, sports and subject fairs.  Sports activities in schools have produced some of the finest athletes in this country. We have international stars such as Nijel Amos, Amantle Montsho, Glody Dube and Isaac Makwala from schools sports. This shows that teachers have a huge role to play in the diversification of our economy and activities. It shows that if we take sport seriously, the country would have many young millionaires.  It is heartening to hear the government announcing that has secured funds to pay teachers overtime allowance. This is a welcome development and we hope in future, the parties would not renege on the agreements. As Batswana like to say, there is nothing for mahala. Everybody should be paid for work done. Gone are the days of slavery and the parties should work together for the best interests of learners.

Editor's Comment
Congratulations Anicia Gaothuse!

The contest had 10 beautiful young girls as finalists and unfortunately only one could wear the crown.The judges picked Anicia Gaothuse. To all those who feel their contestant should have won ahead of Anicia for whatever reason, hardly; the judges found Anicia to be the best among the best, so desist from disrespecting our newly crowned queen on social media or anywhere else, for that matter! Each of the 10 beautiful young women had supporters...

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