Africa-Press – Botswana. Government is committed to supporting teachers to ensure a thriving education sector.
The Acting President, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe expressed the commitment at the National Teachers Day celebrations in Palapye on Friday.
Emphasising that educators were essential to national building, Mr Gaolathe said their concerns must be addressed to improve the country’s education. He said teachers were not adversaries in the nation’s transformation but were co-architects of the new Botswana.
The Acting President noted that teachers continued to carry out their mission, often under the weight of overcrowded classrooms, crumbling infrastructure, and countless unseen burdens, enduring, persisting and building the nation in silence.
“The classroom of yesterday held slates and was very different from the classroom of today. But what has never changed is the heart of the teacher, always full, always fighting, always forming minds,’’ he said.
Mr Gaolathe said teacher morale had been tested by many challenges that they faced including welfare issues and the weight of expectations unmatched by resources.
He, however, promised teachers that the education system would be patched up and be overhauled. “We are moving swiftly to build a dual education model, one that unites theory with practice, head with hand, chalk with tool. This is how we realign learning with life,’’ he said.
To rebuild trust and the future of education, Mr Gaolathe said the government was committed to investing in teachers in various ways including the improvement of the working conditions and attending to their welfare issues.
“This will not be easy considering the tight fiscal space. But let us remember that economic downturns are not dead ends. They are the furnaces in which great nations are forged,’’ he said.
The Acting President thanked the award-winning teachers for fighting battles that were never seen. He said some teachers taught when there were no books, stayed when hope stayed home and stood firm when others fled.
Mr Gaolathe said in Biblical terms, they were the modern-day Moses and Deborah, leading generations across the dry rivers of inequality to the promised land of opportunity.
He pleaded with teachers to reject the temptation of apathy and commit to build a new Botswana through a reimagined inclusive education system.
The Minister of Child Welfare and Basic Education Ms Nono Kgafela- Mokoka said her ministry would focus on building a solid education base for a better Botswana through motivated teachers whose teaching-learning environment would be conducive.
She said such an ambitious stance could not be achieved at the wink of an eye, but the ministry remained resolute on crafting a new chapter in the teaching profession.
Ms Kgafela-Mokoka said countries had been investing hugely in teacher retooling and capacity building especially given the manifestations of latest technological advancement.
She acknowledged that they had not been doing well in that area and pledged to expedite processes on teacher retooling and capacity building.
“Such an endeavour shall be bearing testimony to the fact that the ministry upholds the notion that indeed qualified and motivated teachers are the single most important school-based determinant of quality education and I vouch to turn this perception into reality.”
The minister also said that her ministry was committed to improving infrastructure in schools where the conditions were deplorable and unbearable since many teachers lived in almost uninhabitable houses and taught in dilapidated classrooms and ill-resourced laboratories.
Botswana Teachers Union president Mr Gotlamang Oitsile said the government had come into office with bold statements about transformation, a roadmap guided by social justice and equity principles.
He therefore, said that the union welcomed these ideals but also cautioned that words were not enough, saying a roadmap was only helpful if it led people somewhere better. Mr Oitsile said the teachers and the workers had expectations because for a long time now, teachers had been celebrated in speeches yet neglected in budgets.
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