In a letter written to the school heads and dated November 24, 2010 by President of the Botswana Secondary Teachers Union (BOSETU), Shandukani Hlabano advised the teachers who would like to go on leave to apply for it and those who choose to be at work to apply for the leave at a later date, at their own convenience. He said subsequent to the implementation of the Public Service Act teachers are entitled to leave like other employees in the public service. "But the nature of work for teachers is such that by the end of each school term students go on vacation and by implication the level of engagement for teachers is minimal," he said. He further stated that BOSETU offices have been inundated with reports from some school heads and teachers that they are denied the opportunity to go on leave on the grounds that they have exhausted their leave days even though there are no records to that effect. He admitted that there is need for the employer to engage teachers unions meaningfully in order to establish a common understanding of parties regarding the management of leave for teachers' vis-ˆ-vis the school calendar.
"In the absence of a clear guide from the employer's side we duly advise that all teachers who would like to go on leave should apply for it. Those who choose to be at work could do so and can apply for leave at a later date at their convenience," he said. This follows a directive that is alleged to have been written by one deputy secretary that teachers have only 14 days of annual leave accrued from the day of the implementation of the new Public Service Act. "How are teachers supposed to apply for leave based on the 14 days for such a long school vacation and where are the other leave days accrued because the new act found the teachers working," questioned the BOSETU publicist secretary, Mogomotsi Motshegwe, adding that the directive was a sign of decisions being taken by emotional people. "We had wanted the status core to remain until everything has been sorted out including the hours of work and levels of operations," he said. When reached the MoE public relations officer, Nomsah Zuze said that the directive was meant for purposes of keeping records. "There has been no record showing the leave days accrued. That was done only for purposes of records keeping. There might have been a misinterpretation of the directive," she said. In the past teachers never applied for leave days and the ministry had no records of such.
