Fabricated COVID-19 findings worry BTU

PALAPYE: One of the country’s leading teacher trade unions, Botswana Teachers Union (BTU), has expressed worry that some government officials continue to fabricate findings when they do inspections in relation to COVID-19 compliance across schools in the country.

The position of the union was recently shared by Tjalegwa Bagwasi, vice president (VP) for (BTU’s) Pre-Primary and Primary Sector. Bagwasi was presenting the (sector) report at the Pre-Primary and Primary Sector Conference. He pointed out that despite inspection reports from the government regularly suggesting that schools fully comply with COVID-19 protocols, the position of the union leadership is that there is an overall deterioration in terms of adherence to (COVID-19) protocols in schools. “Schools around the country were inspected several times by the National Inspection Team from the Ministry of Basic Education (MoBE), unions, health and local government officials. The union is worried by the outcome of inspection reports. These reports often suggest that many things have been well achieved in terms of compliance (which is contrary to the position of the union),” he said.

The Pre-Primary and Primary Sector VP stated that schools across the country have often decried shortage of sanitisers, hand washing soaps, dilapidated hand washing stations, shortage of PPE’s and lack of portable water, among others. Bagwasi highlighted that about four inspections were carried out since the outbreak of COVID-19, the last being from May 6-11, 2021. He explained that through the (inspection) exercises, 791 schools from all 10 regions in the country (91 of which were boarding schools) were inspected.

The Pre-Primary and Primary Sector report presented by Bagwasi also raised concerns about adherence to COVID-19 protocols in schools. “It has been realised that schools continue to fail dismally when it comes to adherence to protocols. This is one of the reasons why the viral rate in schools is high,” Bagwasi said before urging teachers to fully comply with COVID-19 protocols. So far, over 40 teachers have died because of COVID-19, the majority of whom are BTU members. The lapses in adherence to COVID-19 protocols were realised after rapid sampling was done on teachers and learners from different schools. The sampling was done in about 10 schools, according to the BTU report. “One of the things the union also realised is that schools fail to periodically disinfect surfaces and that learners and teachers do not properly wear masks. Learners also don’t social distance during free periods. In addition, both teachers and learners do not regularly sanitise,” Bagwasi said. Schools also contravene COVID-19 protocols by constantly convening staff meetings and keeping earners for longer periods in classes, he stated. He said that the union will do everything in its power to ensure full compliance with COVID-19 protocols. The report from Bagwasi also raised concerns on the method used by health officials to do contact tracing in schools. The report said sampling in classes where few students are tested has led to an increase in the number of COVID-19 positive cases. According to Bagwasi, BTU has on many occasions advised health officials against such a process, but very little change has been made in that regard.

“On another note, when contact tracing is done and it is realised that many teachers are to go home, management connives with the government health officers to reduce the number of teachers. This was experienced in many schools across the country; Bakwena National Primary in Molepolole as an example,” Bagwasi said.