30 Mar 2017

Names of teachers have already been sent to Central Region to fill the seven positions in Boteti Primary Schools.
This was said by the Minister of Basic Education, Dr Unity Dow when responding to a question from MP for Boteti East, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe on March 28.
Dr Dow said schools with vacant positions in the Boteti East constituency were Mmea (1), Mokubilo (2), Supang (1) and Mmatshumo (2).
She explained that the positions had been vacant for a period ranging from seven days to one month in exception of only one at Mmea, which was eight months old.
“It is not difficult to fill these positions except when officers decline the posting to a particular school,” she said.
In addition, Minister Dow said there were currently no vacant posts that were caused by the ORACLE System.
However, she said 12 positions were used to absorb employees during the migration of data from the Infinium System to the ORACLE System.
Dr Dow noted that in order to avoid disruption of teaching and learning, her ministry had engaged qualified temporary teachers where there was shortage.
She told the House that ‘generally, the performance of the schools had improved over the past three years with the exception of Mmea and Mokubilo primary schools.’ Furthermore, the minister stated that they anticipated the creation of some permanent teacher positions by the end of April to help address the situation.
Parliament has also been informed that the ministry maintained a database of graduate teachers.
MP Lelatisitswe had asked if it was true that there was critical shortage of teachers in Boteti East constituency primary schools and that such had been going on for a number of years.
He asked which primary schools had vacant posts and how long the posts had been vacant, what mad it difficult for the ministry to fill them, which posts were vacant because of the ORACLE.
Boteti East legislator also enquired on how the situation had affected the performance of students in the past three years, when the primary schools would enjoy full complement like other regions.
The minister was also requested to state the ministry’s strategy to fill all these vacant posts. ENDS