30 Mar 2016

The Minister of Education and Skills Development, Dr Unity Dow, has tabled a Bill proposing among other things for the minister to appoint the chief executive officer of Botswana Examinations Council (BEC) and teachers to carry out the supervision and invigilation of external examinations and course work.

Dr Dow presented the Botswana Examinations Council (amendment) Bill of 2015 for second reading in Parliament on March 29.  She stated that the key objectives of the Bill was to effect five changes to the existing Botswana Examinations Council Act of 2002, which mandated BEC to conduct school examinations and any other examinations for the ministry and issue certificates in respect to such examinations.

She said one of the amendments entails expanding the mandate of BEC so that it includes provision of examinations for technical and vocational education institutions and other bodies under the ministry of education.

“The transformation of the BEC mandate into a national assessment centre will expand its function to include assessment and moderation for technical and vocational skills,” she said.

Secondly, she said the proposed amendments made provision for appointment of Board members of the Council on the basis of their competence, knowledge and experience, instead of the current practice whereby they are appointed from institutions stated under the Act.

Another amendment entails removing the development and publication of criteria for accreditation of external qualifications from the functions of the Council as those functions are now held by the Botswana Qualifications Authority.

Furthermore, the Bill seeks to have the minister of education appoint the chief executive officer of BEC, particularly because BEC is a parastatal under the ministry of education.

“It is therefore rational for its highest office to be appointed by the minister like it is done with other parastatals,”she argued.

The Leader of Opposition Mr Duma Boko opposed the Bill, accusing the ministry of education of trying to use Parliament to get around the court judgement which had stated that teachers could not be assigned the responsibility of invigilating and supervising examinations. 

“The approach the minister is taking of trying to impose further work on teachers which is fully outside the scope of their work is incorrect,” Mr Boko charged, pointing out that the Bill had the potential to stoke controversy between the ministry and teacher unions.

Mr Boko, who is also the MP for Gaborone Bonnington North constituency, said the amendment was not clear on whether the ministry can direct a teacher from one school to supervise and invigilate an external examination at another school.

He also said it was not clear on the process of marking of external examinations, adding that the process of invigilating and supervising external examinations must be regarded as an added responsibility for which a teacher, who is directed to carry out such, should be remunerated.

“The engagement with BEC to maintain the standards and integrity of an examination places an onerous burden on teachers for which they should be appropriately remunerated. The ministry should be fair to teachers and pay them for their hard work,” he said.

Mr Boko said a durable solution was to have a special dispensation that regulates the teaching cadre rather than controlling them using the Civil Service Act. ENDS