Africa-Press – Botswana. Limited vacancies at place of interest for teachers and medical reasons amongst others have been explained as the cause of prolonged periods of transfer of teachers from some of the schools.
Answering a question in Parliament, the Minister of Child Welfare and Basic Education, Ms Nono Kgafela-Mokoka said some teachers had indicated that they wished to be transferred and serve at places of their interest in urban and peri-urban areas, however limited vacancies at the indicated places had caused pressure and long waiting list, hence the delay. She also said some teachers had long been transferred to major cities for medical reasons, while others joined their spouses and this made it difficult for those in rural areas hence affecting transfers.
The minister said her ministry used to have a transfer policy to easy the challenges, however it got suspended when the Public Service Act of 2010 regulated the ministry, which was currently under review. She said the other factor was the promotion of teachers in rural areas, an intervention by a way of affirmative action, which was set to cover all schools in the remotest areas. The action, she said entailed lowering performance benchmarks to compensate for the challenging environments teachers served under.
“A performance monitoring or career development frame work exist as part of Performance Management System in all schools, be it urban or rural. A competency Based Career Path maps out a route for progression for all teacher,” she said.
She said this would prescribe a minimum duration of time a teacher was required to operate at any given level before progressing to the next higher level. The minister added that this was meant for teachers to acquire the competencies they needed to operate effectively and efficiently upon promotion to the next higher level. She said the Remote Area Service Allowance applied to all government ministries and it was under review.
Kgatleng East MP, Mr Mabuse Pule had asked the minister if she was aware of challenges faced by teachers in his constituency, especially those at far reach areas like Oliphant’s Drift. Mr Pule also asked if the ministry had formal teacher redeployment or rotation policy and if not, whether it intends to develop one to promote equitable movement and professional growth of teachers across regions. He also wanted to know what the ministry was doing to address promotion stagnation for teachers in rural schools, where upward mobility appeared to be very slow compared to others.
The MP also wanted to be apprised about the performance monitoring or career development framework that ensured rural base teachers had equal access to promotion opportunities and capacity building programme. Mr Pule further asked whether the ministry would consider reviewing or reforming the correct Remote Area Service Allowance to make rural posting more attractive and sustainable for qualified personnel.
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