Botswana Secondary School Teachers Union (BOSETU) is shocked by government decision not to sponsor students who have scored less than 40 points in Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE). As if that is not enough, the government went on to announce that it will not sponsor students to private tertiary institutions. We advise the government to reverse these decisions immediately.
The decisions will definitely hit hard on the poor and therefore trigger a cycle of poverty and other miseries.
It should be noted that a student who scores 40 points is not necessarily more intelligent than the one who scored less. For practical and appreciation purposes, Candidate X can have the following grades : 1A *(8) 1A (7), 1B (6) in pure sciences; 2Bs for Maths and English and 1D (5) in Setswana which translates to a total score of 38. A student who registers 6Bs get 36 points and that is a very good grade. And they are many such candidates who will be unfairly disadvantaged by the ministry’s new decision.
Our considered position is that while the global credit crunch poses realistic challenges, to temper with the provision of education to a nations’ youth would pose a greater challenge that might prove insurmountable in the not so distant future. It should also be noted that some of those children who find themselves outside the cutoff point form part of the national intellectual power house.
BOSETU believes that it is the role of the state to educate its citizens. Educating the nation means that the government empowers its citizens and at the same time fighting against all social ills as well as poverty and diseases. An educated nation is unlikely to starve, fall sick or indulge in heinous criminal activities. And that is when we will hail Vision 2016!
BOSETU has always advised the Ministry of Education not to implement policies that would have a negative impact on the future of its youth. The aborted two year JC, School fees, double shift programme are some of those policies that BOSETU advised government not to implement to no avail. The general teacher grievances that inundated teacher unions are an indication of a ministry critically lying in an intensive care unit.
The sudden decision that the Ministry of Education has taken is very suspect, especially that the Budget session at parliament has just ended. Parliament, in its wisdom, should have conclusively debated these issues. It is therefore grossly unreasonable, unjust and unfair for the Ministry of Education to now hijack unsuspecting parents and their children with these changes when they could have asked for more funds during the Budget session.
It is on this background that BOSETU once again calls upon government to institute an independent investigation or a commission of inquiry in the Ministry of Education. So many things are not going well in the Ministry and very soon it may grind to a total halt since the comedy of errors are never ending!
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
Justin Hunyepa
Executive Secretary
