21 Oct 2018

Minister of Basic Education, Mr Bagalatia Arone expressed concern over dilapidated infrastructure in secondary schools despite funds availability  to undertake maintenance.

Addressing teachers during a meeting held at Sefhare Junior Secondary School (JSS) on October 19, Mr Arone said his ministry had decentralised the management of secondary schools for schools to drive their developments.

However, the minister said despite the ministry’s efforts, some schools were still struggling with dilapidated infrastructure.

He said Ramokgonami and Sefhare secondary schools were allocated P600 000 and P300 000 respectively, yet they have used only a small percentage of that money with

Ramokgonami JSS having spent only P100 000 while Sefhare JSS spent only P50 000 of the allocated funds.

Mr Arone urged schools to find the shortest and quickest way to spend the money, adding, ‘we are not returning any money at the end of this financial year’.

He said his ministry was allocated a lion’s share of P6 billion as development budget, but it was struggling to spend the funds.

So far the ministry had spent 10 per cent of the budget.

This, he said was worrisome because the financial year was about to come to an end, yet his ministry was moving at a snail pace.

Therefore, he urged secondary schools to do their best to spend the money allocated to them, which would ultimately improve the teaching and learning conditions.

He also informed teachers that his ministry would come up with reforms to improve conditions of service for teachers.

Mr Arone, who is also MP for Okavango, said he had appointed a team to look into issues affecting the teaching profession and come up with interventions.

He said all welfare-related issues should be addressed, citing issues of promotions, transfers, overstay, progression and accommodation among others.

Where there were issues of teachers overstay, the minister said there should be special dispensation in terms of promotions as a way of motivating the affected teachers.

He said teaching was a special cadre that could not be treated equally to others, hence it was difficult to apply the new Public Service Act on it, citing application for leave days during school holidays or remain in school during that period, adding that breaking during school holidays comes with the profession.

The task team, he said would also look into the issue of overtime, saying paying teachers overtime has proved difficult to implement because it was difficult to measure their work.

He said he once proposed for teachers to be paid profession allowance because teachers’ work is immeasurable.

He said he was equally concerned about a backlog of unpaid overtime, subsistence and other payments due to teachers, urging the Central Education Region to compile the report and send it to the ministry to enable the ministry to budget for such.

He said the ministry needed to address the issue and start on a clean slate.

Mr Arone further said the ministry was also looking into the issue of Botswana Teachers Council (BOTECO) whose mandate would be to regulate the teaching profession.

He said one of BOTECO objectives was to register  all teachers and come up with guidelines.

In addition he said the team would also look into the broadband pay structure, which emanated due to Levels of Operation.

He said his ministry wishes to allow teachers to do what they are best at and retain them  rather than being promoted to higher managerial positions, which end up compromising performance of both teachers and students.

Another issue that the task force will look into is why the ministry failed to introduce specialisation at primary school level, especially for specialised subjects such as Science and Mathematics.

Mr Arone said while the ministry was still working on issues affecting teachers, teachers should be able to do their core mandate of teaching and improve academic performance.

For her part, the area MP Ms Dorcas Makgato said the ministry should look into sub-dividing the Central Region to enhance service delivery.

She proposed for the establishment of satellite offices in other areas, Sefhare being one of them to help service teachers in her constituency.

She said teachers in her area  were compelled to travel long distances to Mahalapye Sub-region to get service, adding that ‘this makes teachers to demand payment for mileage as they use their own vehicles most of the time’.

She said schools in rural areas should be treated as special cases and should be well equipped.

She urged the minister to come up with smarter ways of dealing with transfers, adding transfers out of the constituency were not happening.

Ms Makgato said in instances where transfer-outs happened, teachers were often transferred to other rural areas instead of urban areas, adding that teachers in rural areas also needed to enjoy the benefits of teaching in urban areas.

She said education was an important sector that ensured the government delivered on its mandate, hence issues affecting the sector should be addressed amicably. ENDS