15 Aug 2017

Boteti East Member of Parliament, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitse has tabled a motion requesting government to engage temporary teachers on a 12 months contract.  

Speaking in Parliament on Friday, Mr Lelatisitswe explained that engaging temporary teachers on a 12 months contract will promote the principle of continuity in learning and reduce administrative costs.

Temporary teachers he said are currently employed on a three months renewable contract, something which He said disturb the teacher to child relation and the learning process as a whole.

He said temporary teachers are academically fully qualified and deserve to be given a fair chance of work experience while awaiting to be employed on full time basis.

He indicated that it is of great concern that students at times can go a long time without a teacher while there are unemployed teachers roaming the streets hence the engagement of temporary teachers on a longer term will not only  positively impact the teachers but will also improve the education standards in Botswana.

Mr Lelatisitswe argued that there are a lot of unemployed graduates who need to be empowered by building up their resumes and equipping them with the relevant skills and knowledge required to prosper in the corporate world.

He said engaging temporary teachers on a longer term will also assist to relieve them from the hardships of life as there will be a long lasting remuneration to those engaged temporary teachers.

 Commenting on the motion, Assistant Minister of Basic Education, Mr Moisiraela Goya applauded the mover of the motion for tabling such an important motion. 

He affirmed that the current situation of engaging temporary teachers on short term basis has been affecting the student teacher relation thus impacting the entire learning process.

He however explained that his ministry has already started on contracting temporary teachers on a longer 12 months period particularly in cases where permanent teachers have been recommended to further their studies.

The ministry he said was  initially constrained by engaging temporary tearchers on a three months renewable contract to fill in the void left by teachers on study leaves hence it was only ideal to agree on a 12 month contract term.    

 He said the three months contract however only still applies when replacing permanent teachers on maternity leaves only.

He admitted that his ministry is overwhelmed by the high numbers of unemployed graduates, highlighting that there are currently over 7 000 unemployed teachers’ graduates in the ministry’s database all awaiting to be posted. 

He said  keeping the database assists the ministry to quickly fill in any vacant post as soon as it exists.  In his comments Minister of Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Eric Molale explained that it will be inappropriate to engage temporary teachers on a 12 months contract as that will conflict with some of the pensions and gratuity regulations. 

He said it will be difficult to reward an employee on such a contract with his terminal benefits at the end of the contract since the public servants act and pensions regulation clearly stipulates that an employee should have a minimum of 24 months contract in order to attract terminal benefits at the end of the contract. ENDS