04 Aug 2025

 A total of 5,191 teachers are owed leave concession while 1,846 and 3,032 are owed transfer allowance and subsistence allowance, respectively.

Answering a question in Parliament on behalf of the Minister of Child Welfare and  Basic Education recently, the Assistant Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Mr Keoagile Atamelang also stated that 226 submissions for overtime allowance have been made for August payments. He however said no teachers are owed acting allowance, adding that the South East region has the highest number of unpaid allowances with 2 081 teachers being owed; a situation that he attributed to budgetary constraints.

Mr Atamelang said the ministry was faced with a challenge of inadequate funding as a result of approved budgetary ceilings, which were insufficient to cover all the ministry needs. He said in addressing the challenge, the ministry continued to reprioritise its budget and forego some activities to facilitate all payments. Furthermore, Mr Atamelang said the ministry would engage the Ministry of Finance for the November supplementary budget. He said the ministry intended to have paid all outstanding payments by the end of the current financial year.

Mr Atamelang was responding to a question from Maun East MP, Mr Goretetse Kekgonegile who had asked the minister to brief parliament on progress of payments of various allowances to teachers in the ministry. His emphasis was on the number of teachers owed leave concession, transfer allowance, subsistence allowance, overtime allowance and acting allowance.

Mr Kekgonegile also wanted to know, which region has the highest number of unpaid allowances and why, as well as the reasons for non-payment and mitigating factors going forward. He also asked the minister to state when and how the ministry intended to pay the teachers. ENDS