PLSE exams marking dilemma
Al Hag School abruptly closed to pave way for marking of PLS exams ordered to reopen for classes
Botswana Examinations Council ( BEC) has dispatched investigators to determine if it is safe for teachers assembled at Al Hag primary school in Molepolole for the marking of Primary Leaving School Examinations ( PLSE) to continue.
This followed a court order issued by Gaborone High Court Judge, Michael Leburu that the school management open the school as its decision to close it for two weeks without proper consultation contradicted the Regulation 5 of the education private owned school requirements.
The matter was brought as an urgent application by five parents. Al Hag primary school shocked parents and teachers alike when they indicated through a letter that they will close for two weeks as they have rented the facility to BEC to conduct marking PLSE papers.
No amount of reasoning could make the school administration change heart. Instead parents who brought their children to school found them being dispersed by law enforcement agencies under the COVID regulations, a matter that left them with no alternative but to go to court.
Speaking to Botswana Guardian Wednesday, BEC Chief Executive Officer Professor Brian Mokopakgosi said they have not yet received the court order, but “I can confirm that the Al Hag management have informed us that they are talking to the parents so that the marking and the lessons can run parallel”.
He added, “I have sent an investigation team to Al Hag this morning to determine whether the facility can accommodate the latest proposal by the management as this is what we are doing at other facilities like Rainbow in Gaborone and Crescent in Lobatse. “The next step for us will be to determine the way forward as we cannot defy a court order. It is our prayer and hope that if it is true that the management has engaged the parents then they can find an amicable solution as we are left with two days meaning this week Thursday and Friday to wrap.
“Marking of PLSE examinations went well thus far, save for this hiccup. We divided the marking centres into three parts of one third each in order to comply with COVID- 19 regulations hence why we have other teams being based in Lobatse and Gaborone. “Currently we cannot take teachers in Molepolole to any place in order to avoid congestion, further we would have liked to use government facilities, but had to waive this as all government schools extended their school days to December in order to cover up. “For now we will have to wait for the findings of our team and if there is no agreement reached and the worse comes to the worst, we will have to delay the marking as that cannot compromise anything,” Mokopakgosi said. Justice Leburu’s court order ruled that the application is urgent in terms of Order 12 Rule 12 and that the applicants have established that they have the necessary locus standi to bring the present application.
He said the non- joiner of BEC to the proceedings is not fatal to the application in terms of Order 16 Rule 9
of the high court rule and expunged the citation of the sixth applicant from the proceeding. Leburu ruled that the failure by the applicants to plead the respective ages of the children/ pupils is not fatal to the proceedings, considering that the applications relate to children, whose rights are protected by the Children’s Act, Cap 28: 01.
“It is declared that Al Hag is obliged to provide, in its Annual School Calendar, a minimum 180 days uninterrupted school days, Ceteris paribus, in terms of Regulation 5 of the Education ( Private primary school) Regulations,” he ruled, adding that the two week closure of Al
Hag School, done without affording the applicants a prior hearing or notification is prejudicial to the rights of the parents’s children.
Judge Leburu then ordered Al Hag to reopen school forthwith, for continuation of the school programme and that Al Hag shall bear the costs of the application. The decision by the school management to continue both the marking and lessons raises many questions, key among which is, why did they close the school to pave way for marking if at all it is true that the facility has enough space and resources to run both lessons and marking parallel, and why did they mislead BEC?