The Botswana Sector of Educators Trade Unions (BOSETU) has expressed concern at the way the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) deals with burning issues. BOPEU mouthpiece, Solomon Batsietswe, slammed the ministry for failure to pay teachers for coursework performed in 2014 and delayed a meeting to come up with the 2015 rates even though some subjects have already completed their coursework.
“A lot of teachers are yet to be paid for 2014 coursework and the reasons advanced by the Ministry are unsatisfactory, we have not even met to discuss the 2015 coursework rates, but the Agriculture course work is already done without the teachers knowing what is due to them,” he said. Batsietswe said this was frustrating and accused the Ministry of lack of commitment as it always comes up with excuses despite the two parties having agreed to meet fortnightly to address issues in the education sector. On issues of overtime payments due to teachers, Batsietswe said they are happy that even though not all teachers have been paid, they continue to receive their money.
Batsietswe also told this publication that they recently met with Ministry officials where they talked about possible solutions to some of the challenges that face the education sector, challenges which they hope to pass on to the Minister before they can be discussed with the Department of Public Service Management (DPSM). “One of the issues is that of Levels of Operation with regard to Senior teachers in primary schools, they have not moved from C1 scale, the suggestion is that they move to D4, Head of Departments to D3, Deputy heads to D2 and School Heads to D1,” Batsietswe explained.
MoESD Public Relations Officer, Silas Sehularo, had not responded to a questionnaire from this publication at the time of going to print.