EXAM CRISIS

BGCSE candidates, teachers lick wounds of BEC’s postponement • BOSETU wants the BEC leadership to resign

All hell broke loose at the Botswana Examinations Council (BEC) last week when some final examinations paper circulated on social media before they were written, leading to the entire exam being postponed for two weeks to safeguard integrity.

The postponement has not been received well by both students and teachers, with the Botswana Sectors of Educators Trade Union (BOSETU) even calling for the resignation of the the examination council’s leadership. In a statement, the union said that with about five (5) 2023 BGCSE examination papers being leaked, BOSETU was expecting the BEC CEO to immediately resign. “All self-respecting executives who believe in accountability and taking responsibility for their organisations’ actions or inactions would resign when the organisation they lead is faced with such a huge magnitude of scandalous ineptitude,” said BOSETU Secretary general Tobokani Rari. For the Recruitment and Retention member at the same union, BOSETU, Moses Molelowatladi, this was unacceptable. He told The Midweek Sun that this has caused a lot of uncertainty for both teachers and students. He said that teachers had to reschedule their teaching plans to cater for this situation, meaning that the candidates were expected back at the classroom again. He is of the view that this whole incident causes frustration on students, especially those who were fully prepared and now going back to regular classes. His fear is that it seems the many people, especially within BEC were only concerned about the issue being raised on social media than to focus on the problem at hand. “It is about time that the examinations structure be revised because BEC is not providing the service that it was created for. It is not the first time that something related to this has happened and this brings inconvenience to both the teachers and the students,” he said. He said there has been a lot of grey areas pertaining to exams before, including the council holding onto the results after they were declared ready for release, and students resubmitting for marking among others. Such incidents, he submitted, have compromised the integrity of the institution, leading some to question the goings-on at BEC.

In an attempt to clear its name, BEC explained in a press conference last week that this was an unfortunate incident and that there was an alternative paper to resolve the issue. Education Minister Dr Douglas Letsholathebe said the suspension of the BGCSE examinations will allow BEC time to reflect on the ongoing investigations, as well as prepare for resumption of the conduct of the examinations. He said they would provide counselling for the students, as well as teachers to prepare them under the circumstance.

This publication reached out to a few candidates who expressed disappointment regarding the whole situation. Thato Stone, a private candidate who was specifically sitting for Mathematics and Science told The Midweek Sun that she was shattered when she learned that the examinations were cancelled. “This has really disturbed me because I was well prepared, and when I first heard this I really panicked, wondering if it was true because this is the only chance to better my life. I didn’t do well in Mathematics last year and so I decided to give it a try again this year so that I can realise my dream of joining the Health Sciences institutions at tertiary level,” she said.

Another candidate, Ipiletseng Kolatau was also very disappointed and hurt by this postponement. “It was not easy to carry this on my shoulder. After all the sacrifice I made preparing for these exams and then some people decided to do this...,” she cried, adding that it was a good decision to halt the exam since several papers are alleged to have been leaked. A teacher who was assigned to invigilate the Mathematics Paper2 exam that was scheduled to be written last week Wednesday told The Midweek Sun anonymously that she only learnt of the suspension of the exam when she had arrived at the exam centre. She said the postponement and allegations of leaking have been nervewrecking for both teachers and students. “I can imagine the frustration that this has caused students. I am currently trying to counsel my students but all I can say is that they are just confused. BEC should do better in the future,” she said.