02 Mar 2014

Establishment of the teaching council will go a long way in solving problems that teachers go through on their daily basis.

The Minister of Education and Skills Development, Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi said this when addressing teachers at Maoka Junior Secondary School in Gaborone on February 26.

She said the counci,l which was about to be operational, wasestablished as an institution that would assist teachers to manage challenges that they went through in their teaching profession. The council, she said, was solely mandated to grill teachers on teaching ethics as well as take them through personal counseling.

The minister further said, though teachers went through their professional education at colleges of education, it had proven that; that level of education on its own was not enough, therefore the need for establishment of the teaching council.

She said the teaching council will be a route to counseling teachers and assisting them to know how to face challenges such as teacher-student love relationships as well as anger management towards students.

Dr Venson-Moitoi informed teachers that the ministry had taken sometime, concentrating on ironing out the country’s education system in order to perfect it out. This, she said seemed as though the ministry leadership was ignoring the education administration part, a thing she said was part of her plan.

Now that education section of the ministry issues have been ironed out, the Minister said, she will now start concentrating on education administration. She said management will now start to concentrate on school buildings, supplies, finance issues as well as teacher welfare.

Before addressing teachers, Dr Venson-Moitoi had a moment with the students during the school assembly time, where she counseled them on the need to desist from dubious acts such as drug abuse.

Maoka JSS has been bedeviled by acts of delinquency such as drug and alcohol abuse, a thing which has been rampant among students and a great concern to the school administration.

For her part, the school head, Ms Tselane Temeki explained that her school has not been performing badly academically as it came sixth out of 27 schools in the region in past examination results.

She said though her school’s quality pass has been slightly low, its transition rate has been averagely high, thus most of the students admitted at senior secondary school. She said, the school is currently working on its turn-around strategy with an intention to improve this year results. ENDS