The Botswana Examination Council (BEC), the Ministry of Education and Skill Development and the Botswana Teachers Union (BTU) say both the Standard 7 and Form Five final examinations for this year started smoothly on Monday.
Speaking to The Telegraph this week, the Secretary General of BTU, Micheal Mothubi, said, “Since the examinations started, we have not received any problem so far.”
Mothubi said teachers are busy invigilating the examinations as agreed between the ministry and the union. He said although they have agreed to be paid P50 for examination allowances, come next year, the fee is expected to be raised because they wanted the examinations to run smoothly.
“We really want this year’s examination to run smoothly and be a success because we also have at heart our country as well as our students,” he said.
The Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Education and Skills Development, Nomsa Zuze confirmed that “the exams started smoothly on Monday without any problem”.
She said she visited several schools around Gaborone and Ramotswa and everything was running normally.
“We do not want to repeat what happened last year,” she said, adding that she was optimistic that the examinations will run smoothly until Friday.
“As you might be aware, the examinations are now being invigilated by teachers as we agreed with the unions some sometime this year,” she said.
The Public Relations Officer of BEC, Charles Keikotlhae, also shared the same sentiments.
“So far so good,” he said. “We have not yet observed any hiccups since the start of the final examinations.”
He said the Standard 7 exams will be completed at the end of this week while the Form Five exams will end on the 23rd of next month.
Keikotlhae said that the Form 3 students will resume their final examination on the 7th to the 18th of next month.
