20 Mar 2023

There are 657 boarding assistants in the Central region schools, Parliament has heard.

Answering a question in Parliament recently, Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Aubrey Lesaso indicated that there were currently 29 junior secondary boarding schools and 10 senior secondary boarding schools in the region.

Mr Lesaso told MPs that boarding assistants were teachers who were given a five per cent allowance for performing duties that included supervising learners’ meals and studies during evenings and weekends.

“Teachers are provided with institutional housing where available often situated within the school grounds,” he said.

Mr Lesaso said for staff to work overtime it had to be first sanctioned by the director of the region, based on the availability of funds.

“Unfortunately, there have been instances where officers have worked overtime without proper authorisation and this can cause delays in payment,” the assistant minister said.

He also said the Central region processed overtime claims for payment of boarding assistants on a continuous basis. 

However, he said due to shortage of funds, boarding assistants were last paid for overtime in November last year.

“My ministry has since sourced funds and will pay any outstanding claims at the end of this month,” Mr Lesaso said.

Further, he stated that non-payment of overtime may negatively affect service delivery so much that supervision of learners may be compromised while boarding duties may not be fully covered as expected.

Serowe North MP, Mr Baratiwa Mathoothe had asked the minister to state the number of boarding JSSs and senior secondary schools in the Central region as well as that of boarding assistants in those schools.

Mr Mathoothe also requested the minister to provide duties, responsibilities and amnesties boarding assistants were provided with in order to perform their duties and provisions that government had put in place to ensure that they were paid overtime allowances on time.

He also asked the minister to stipulate the last time boarding assistants were paid overtime allowance in the Central region and why there were delays.

The legislator further wanted to know how failure to pay them on time as agreed affected service delivery, boarding facilities and the general performance of the schools. Ends