24 Oct 2017

BOCODOL chief executive director, Dr Daniel Tau has underscored the need to restore the dignity and respect the teaching profession was associated with in the earlier years.

He said despite the contributions the profession has made in the development of the country over the years, it was worrying as the teaching profession has arguably lost respect, dignity and reverence as a result of the modesty of teachers and sluggish response to the referred developments.

Giving a keynote address at the Botswana Teachers’ Union (BTU) regional mini 80th Anniversary held in Maun recently, Dr Tau noted that there were some issues that continued to haunt the profession despite the fact that teaching had been dubbed the mother body of all profession and history had confirmed that over the centuries.

 “We could hardly speak of any well-defined and widely accepted ethics of the teaching profession that would otherwise galvanise us but seemingly, we have lost the grip of the struggle to determine our own destiny,” he added.

Dr Tau appreciated that BTU over the years had advocated for and protected teachers’ welfare and interests and promoted sport and cultural development, educational and social programmes as well as promoted local and international partnerships for the advancement of education in the country.

Furthermore, he mentioned that it was partly because of BTU’s relentless pursuit of the referred objectives and democratic ideals that Botswana was able to evolve from the doldrums of being one of the 25 poorest nations of the world at independence to its current status of an upper middle income country.

However, Dr Tau observed that whilst the teaching profession in the country has somewhat and arguably stagnated within the context of the developments alluded to, what teachers exist for has undergone phenomenal change and continues to change.

The curriculum, he said constantly changed calling for change in teacher-learner roles in and outside the classroom as well as change in mediation and instructional leadership practices.

In addition, he pointed out that the educational landscape and environment were currently undergoing ‘gamma’ changes in Botswana with the advent of new quality assurance requirements, qualification frameworks and the call for outcome-based education.

He said the country has a relatively young population with forty per cent being fifteen years below and stated that youthful structure of population had important implications for education, training and skills development all of which were dependent on teacher’s professional acumen.

Dr Tau noted that teachers had an obligation to provide for the youth so that in due course, be able to live creatively in their environment, maintain the legacy of Botswana as a progressive democratic and stable country as well as a nation desirous of embracing global challenges and seeing its citizens competing internationally.

He said teachers should ask themselves if they were sufficiently capacitated for the challenges faced and agreed that the state of affairs called for urgent re-evaluation of intensions and purpose of the teaching profession.

BTU was also called to continue championing and bargaining even more for the course of teachers because without teachers’ tenacious and efficacious professional interventions, the economy would come down on its knees.

Dr Tau said in the next twenty years, as the union march towards 100 years of its existence, there would be need for the union to strive more for a balance between industrial unionism and professional unionism.

Industrial unionism, he said would remain important to the course of teachers because of the need to galvanize members and ensure they remained united behind their leadership in pursuit of the traditional aims of trade union being better reward system and favourable working conditions.

In pursuit of this line of unionism, BTU was advised to align its bargaining strategies to those of others to ensure comparability and competitiveness of welfare schemes and general reward systems. ENDS