02 Mar 2016

Botswana is positioning herself to be an Education Hub and produce globally competitive human resource

As such, there is a need to infuse international mix within the education system.

Answering a question in Parliament on Tuesday, Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Mr Edwin Batshu said out of the 3 116 English Medium school teachers in Botswana, 768 are Batswana, which translates to 24.6 per cent, whereas foreigners account for 75.4 per cent.

 Furthermore, he said prospective employers are required to advertise vacant positions in their work places for interested individuals to apply, adding that there are qualified Batswana teachers in various subjects who could work in English medium schools, and that there is still shortage of local teachers in areas such as physics and chemistry related subject.

He said where there are qualified Batswana who apply, foreigners would not be issued with work permits.

According to Minister Batshu, the process of applying for work residence permits for foreign teachers, among other things, entails submission of a permission to teach, that is issued by the Ministry of Education and Skills Development upon satisfying themselves that the skill required is not readily available locally.

He said the applicants are then subjected to the Point Based System a tool used to assess applications for work and residence permits by the regional immigration selection boards.

Conversely, he said his ministry is not aware that some English medium schools had employed unqualified teachers.

The ministry, he said, through the regional immigration selection boards, continues to assess eligibility of foreign teachers who wish to take up employment in the country to ensure that Batswana are not disadvantaged.

Member of parliament for Gaborone North, Mr Haskins Nkaigwa had wanted the minister to state the number of Batswana teachers employed in English medium schools and the percentage of Batswana teachers compared to foreign teachers, if there are no qualified Batswana who can work in such schools, why such foreigners are given work permits to work if there are qualified Batswana and if he is aware that some English medium schools use unqualified teachers.

He also wanted to know how such foreign teachers request for work permits; and what is being done to protect many teachers who are qualified, but not employed. Ends