Daunting Task Ahead For BEC
The Botswana Examinations Council (BEC) faces a daunting task ahead of executing its mandate in the midst of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
As things stand, BEC will be forced to fork out extra millions to cater to this year’s examinations in order to deliver credible examinations results, while it ensuring adherence to health protocols and protecting lives.
Executive secretary, Brian Mokopakgosi recently told Parliament’s Governance and Oversight Committee that due to the pandemic, they would not be able to bring all their examiners to Gaborone.
As such, they will have to spread them across the country, an exercise that will put a financial strain on BEC.
He said they have been forced to operate under difficult conditions due to COVID-19 as BEC also does not have facilities to conduct its activities, but relies on private facilities.
“It is difficult to bring 6,000 examiners to Gaborone obviously because of COVID-19. We have to spread them across the country and this comes with a lot of challenges both administration and financial, but it has to be done to save lives. We are spending a lot of time planning. This comes at a huge cost,” Mokopakgosi said.
He added the examinations body is already working under a limited financial base, as “we are dependent on government”, whose budget is also shrinking. He, however, said they would conduct this year’s final examinations unless they are told otherwise.
Mokopakgosi also said overreliance on teachers, as examiners and moderators, remains a challenge.
“When teachers examine, it is short-term employment and sometimes, since they are organised, we run into issues which lead to delays in doing the work. But I’m happy to say that in the last two years we have worked brilliantly with teachers and seem to have found common ground with their organisations,” he said.
Meanwhile, the issue of the integrity and security of examination papers remains a challenge. According to Mokopakgosi, this has the potential to dent the image of the country’s education system.
The security of examinations has been pinpointed as one of the key factors that underpin the credibility of any examination.
In the past, there have been reported frequent break-ins at examination centres, with authorities complaining that security in schools where examination papers were marked was inadequate.
Mokopakgosi told the committee that security was critical in the examination process because if one school’s examination materials were tampered with, then the whole process would be nullified. This is costly, as the whole process would have to start afresh, he said.