26 Aug 2019

The establishment of Botswana Teaching Council is expected to play an important role in overseeing the teaching profession and ensuring teachers’ ethical conduct.

Assistant Minister of Basic Education, Mr Thato Kwerepe told Toteng Primary School teachers to accept challenges and to motivate them.

He said the just ended Parliament session passed a bill for the establishment of the council to enhance professionalism in the education sector as only compliant teachers would be licensed to teach.

Teachers who do not meet requirements, he said, would have their certificates withdrawn, and explained that the council would strengthen management and enhance professionalism in the sector.

Mr Kwerepe said school heads would be required to engage the council in taking action against teachers displaying inappropriate behaviour.

He was disturbed by the decline in the performance of the school.

It was reported that the school’s pass rate in 2014 was 61 per cent, in 2015 the pass rate declined to 49 per cent and 36 per cent in 2016 while in 2017 it went to 72 per cent and dropped to 12 per cent last year.

He appreciated challenges faced by teachers such as overstays, work conditions and lack of resources, but stated that it should not be an excuse for low performance as they were trained to do the job.

Mr Kwerepe noted that the same challenges existed in other schools but were doing their best.

Teachers, he said, were trained to work under difficult conditions as their role was to impart knowledge and mould children into responsible citizens. He added that it was possible with support from parents.

“Declining from 72 per cent to 12 is a total collapse. Low performance is one of the reasons parents and pupils lose interest in schools. If the school performs well, it attracts a lot of attention,” he added.

Parents, he said, would transfer their children to better performing schools.

The school started operating in 1976 with 120 pupils and now has an enrolment of 576.

Mr Kwerepe associated the decline in performance to poor management and implored the school management, teachers and parents to work as a unit and turn things around.

He said poor performance would have a negative impact on their progression because they were promoted according to their performance.

Mr Kwerepe said every child had a right to education hence government was investing heavily in the sector with the hope of getting good returns.

An official based in Maun, Mr Mosebo Molapisi said they were aware of the poor performance, and that the cause was known by the school management and teachers.

He said many were transfered who had overstayed.

The school head, Ms Portia Sefo said they conducted a needs assessment and discovered that lack of resources was a challenge.

She said the school had a shortage of classrooms, furniture, computers and a photocopying machine among others. Ends