EDUCATION FACELIFT
MoBE addresses education’s nagging issues
The Ministry of Basic Education (MoBE) is working around the clock to improve results in schools and rid itself of the negative tag that it contributes to poor performance of learners in schools, says spokesperson, Oarabile Phefo.
Botswana Sectors of Educators Trade Union (BOSETU) has repeatedly and openly accused government and MoBE in particular, of neglecting teachers’ welfare among other things.
Speaking to The Midweek Sun in an interview, Phefo said interventions to improve performance include class size reduction and strengthening targeted inspections for low performing schools.
“The school inspection covers all levels (Primary and Secondary). The intention is to monitor what happens in the classroom and identify the root cause of poor results in individual schools and find appropriate interventions,” Phefo said, adding that they are working on strengthening School Leadership through the training of Management.
“The training programme on School Leadership and Management (SLM) has been developed and so far 39 school Heads (32 Senior Secondary Schools and seven (7) Junior Secondary Schools) have been trained.” Phefo said the programme gave School heads, their deputies and heads of departments the necessary skills to effectively and efficiently manage schools. The Ministry has partnered with the University of Botswana to deliver the programme.
MoBE is also about to roll out remediation and enrichment tools for teachers, which were developed in partnership with UNICEF in 2019. In addition, the ministry is revamping the InService programme in order to give teachers the appropriate skills to deliver to the 21st Century learner. Phefo added that new technologies are being integrated for teaching and learning in schools, with teachers and students being provided with Information and Communications Technology (ICT) equipment as well as developing and sourcing e-content to facilitate e-learning. Plans are afoot to train teachers on delivery through ICT, he revealed. Additionally, MoBE is working on digitised snippets of content with other strategic partners in order to avail digital content to schools. This will also address the challenge of shortage of textbooks in schools.
The Ministry is also maintaining schools based on the available budget, building additional staff housing, implementing affirmative action for teacher progression in remote areas as well as addressing overstay of teachers through transfers. Phefo said the progress of some interventions has been negatively affected by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Government must consider adjusting Councillors’ salaries when the economy recovers from the adverse effects of Covid-19, says nominated Francistown Councillor Jojo Lucas.
Councillors were left out of the 2020 public service salary adjustment and are now feeling the brunt of the high cost of living.
“Half of their salaries go to members of the public. They become broke to a point of not having P1 in their pockets. Councillors sacrifice a lot because they are the ones on the ground,” Lucas said.
Councillors earn P12 000 monthly salaries. They also get allowances for accommodation at P1 200, hospitality allowance at P150, telephone allowance at P220 and ward allowance that is calculated according to ward size. In total, Councillors earn around P18 000. Lucas argues that it is high time house allowance was hiked to P4 000. He wonders which type of house costs P1 200? “There is also need to introduce a car allowance,” Lucas said. He said Councillors feel neglected and unappreciated unlike Members of Parliament (MPs) who enjoyed a 1 5 percent salary hike windfall in 2019. It was also announced last year that MPs will receive a 10 percent salary increment to cover their travel allowances, which they now allegedly want reviewed. Lucas feels that MPs are self-serving and don’t have the welfare of Councillors at heart since they never debate issues that affect councillors in Parliament. For example he cites the huge disparities in salaries of Councillors which hover around P20 000 and those of MPs which are P40 000 and more. Lucas said that Councillors are disgruntled that MPs use and dump them once they ascend to the National Assembly and conveniently forget that Councillors are the workhorses on the ground and link between MPs and the public. His sentiments were shared by Councillor Orelebile Baatweng of Mahalapye, who added that they carry the heaviest burden of shouldering the community on a daily basis. “When they are hungry they come beg for food from us; when they are unwell our cars become ambulances so there is urgent need for a salary review,”he said.
Baatweng said that no Councillor is in a position to turn down a plea from a constituent, but fear that with no resources at their disposal, the public could soon lose confidence in them. In response, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Development and Rural Development Molefi Keaja said the adjustment of salaries for Councillors is not the sole prerogative of the Ministry as their salaries are adjusted through government decisions as and when determined. Keaja added that a Bill on the establishment of a standing committee on review of salaries for political leadership, Ntlo ya Dikgosi and specified officers has been published. The committee will deal with among others, the salaries of Councillors.
“Therefore the ministry is not in a position to say when Councillors’ salaries will be adjusted,” he said. Keaja revealed that the last salary review for Councillors was on April 1, 2019 following Government approval of the report on the Presidential Commission on the Review of Salaries, Conditions of Service and other entitlements for Political Leadership, Justices of the Court of Appeal and the High Court, Members of Ntlo ya Dikgosi and Councillors. In the past, Councillors’ salaries were increased when salaries for public servants were adjusted.
This however changed following the establishment of bargaining structures for public officers. “It is worth noting that the Councillors do not have representation in these structures as they are not governed by the Public Service Act,” explained Keaja.