Bosetu speaks to new Minister and Say teacher morale is low Want new leadership to make
President of Botswana Sectors of Educators Trade Union (BOSETU) Winston Radikolo is pleading for improved and effortless dialogue between them and the new faces at the Ministry of Basic Education.
Not taking anything away from the past leaders, Radikolo said that the recently appointed Ministry Permanent Secretary (PS) Miriam Maroba is not new to education issues.
“Maroba has been there in the system, she knows the plight of teachers, she should come in and open doors and create room for dialogue. We are tired of being an under performing ministry,” he said.
Radikolo told this publication that though they have not heard from the new boss to this end, they are hopeful that she has hit the ground running.
“Results are bad, dropping year in and out, the morale is low, there is a lot of speculation in corridors, this is the time to gain the trust of teachers,” said Radikolo.
BOSETU wants Maroba to, as a matter of urgency, look into hiring more teachers so that the workload is reduced. He applauded efforts that were done at the height of Covid-19, saying decongesting of classrooms was a move in the right direction. “She should not abandon what they did, let it not just be Covid-19 measures then we go back to the old way of doing things where a teacher will be having more than 40 students in class.”
“Staff rooms are also congested, flexi hours came in handy and she should not cancel such working arrangements. Teachers have nowhere to sit when they all come to work at the same time,” he said.
Radikolo added that the ministry is also sitting on some court orders and not implementing.
“We have cases that we won in court such as scarce skill for Business teachers but they are dragging their feet to implement it. Such makes unresolved issues to pile when we should be dealing with other legendary ministry issues,” he said.
BOSETU spokesperson Oreeditse Nyatso added that they are waiting to see how the newly appointed Education Minister Douglas Letsholathebe will handle it all. Government recently took a decision to form one Education Ministry and Letsholathebe who was at the time heading the Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology, is now in charge of the Education Ministry as a whole. “We wonder what shall happen, the Ministry of Basic Education was complicated as it is, now to add to it by including issues of tertiary education, we are a bit worried,” said Nyatso.
He added that all they are praying for is for the new faces to understand the importance of dialogue. They do not wish to see things happening without them being consulted first.