Venting out a few pet peeves

Kevin Mokento | Monday January 31, 2022 06:00

Rationality in the decision-making process is always crucial. This article discusses a few of my pet peeves and highlights the importance of aligning decisions to well-considered objectives which cannot be dismissed as unfair or decidedly selfish.

The Boatle-Gaborone road. For decades, motorists in Botswana endured the bumper-to-bumper traffic between Boatle and Gaborone. We were patient because we all appreciated that the government had many infrastructural projects to implement and deliver countrywide. These development projects consumed a huge chunk from the fiscus. Care had to be taken to ensure that the focus of infrastructural developments was not in one area of the country to the disadvantage of others. While people were not happy with the snail-like pace of the traffic between Boatle and the capital city, the majority recognised the importance of waiting patiently.

You can imagine the excitement that followed the announcement that the road would be broadened and converted into a dual carriageway. Though the construction seemed to take forever, many forward looking motorists continued to wait unwearyingly. Ultimately, just over three years ago, the road was opened to traffic. The delivery of the Boatle interchange was a cherry on top. Finally motorists could drive through Boatle without slowing down. The government had to its credit constructed and delivered a pristine road, that quality wise, could rival any dual carriageway in the world.

The legitimate expectation of the motorists was that the maximum speed of either 80km/hr or 60km/hr would be revised upwards in harmony with the widened road and the improved safety that came along with the two lanes going either way. In fact, it is a no brainer, that worldwide, dual carriageways attract higher speed limits. The traffic is no longer heavy on this road. During non-peak hours, aerial views would show few and far between dots plodding their way on the road. Motorists continue to wait with bated breath for a higher speed limit, but, 38 months after its delivery, the maximum speed limit remains at the soporific level of 80km/hr.

Of course, I would not deny that I like burning rubber, but wouldn’t you agree that this speed limit suggests that we are oblivious to the full benefits that had to be reaped by motorists after the government blew close to P1 billion on construction of the road. Like many roads that have unreasonably low speed limits, traffic officers frequent this road armed with the most hated cameras in the world, and even without factual evidence, you can almost be sure that this road collects the highest revenue for government coffers. Assuming that the bigger goal is not road safety, but revenue generation, for the convenience of road users, wouldn’t it be more reasonable to toll the road?

Private schools. Inclusive in fees charged students for the first term of each academic year at private schools is a sum for provision of textbooks. Invariably, some of these textbooks are dog-eared, with torn cover pages and dirty internal pages. Is this what parents are supposed to pay for? Clearly, while the schools are happy to revolve usage of the textbooks each year, they would have long recovered the cost of such books, but they are happy to continue ripping off parents year after year. One wonders whether there are policies in place to monitor either how long the books should be used or what constitutes an acceptable condition of books. Owing to the cost of textbooks and the government’s prioritisation of availing hugely subsidised education to all students across the nation, I will be the first to understand why public schools revolve textbooks, even when their condition might not be acceptable. But I struggle to harmonise this practice with private schools that charge anything from P35,000 to well over P90,000 per annum.

For me, there is a ring of emotional and nostalgic resonance to this issue. When I schooled at Kgari Sechele Secondary from the early 1980s to the mid-1980s, I always looked forward to receiving new textbooks at the beginning of each year. The look, feel and smell of the books always tempted me to devour the content. While I may not be armed with empirical evidence in favour of the view that the condition of textbooks could boost or decrease the appetite for studying, I tend to believe that just as packaging of material in the commercial world might boost sales, the aesthetic quality of textbooks is highly likely to jack up the desire to study. The humungous fees commanded by private schools demand a review of policies on supply of textbooks to students. Perhaps, what could help would be a department in the Ministry of Basic Education tasked with the mandate to monitor and regulate practices of private schools.

What I find even more unacceptable in some of these schools is the shortage of supplies in bathrooms for students. In this COVID-19 era, it is shocking that some private schools fail to supply sufficient toilet paper, hand-wash soap and paper towels for drying hands. How can a reasonably safe COVID-19 environment be created under such pathetic conditions? Does the Ministry of Health and Wellness conduct ad hoc checks on these schools?

In a quest to provide the best education for their children, some parents work hard and sacrifice a lot to piece together money for payment of fees from term to term. In a few cases, plans do not work out and parents end up forced to withdraw their children from private schools at short notice. However, these schools tend to demand a term’s notice and where that condition is not fulfilled owing to a collusion of factors against parents, administrators are always unwilling to listen to the plight of the disconsolate parents and would demand full payment for the notice period from parents who would have already explained their situation.

This often happens even in situations where the withdrawn student would have been replaced by the school from its waiting list. In choosing to accept school fees from the ‘substitute’ student, you would think management would have the heart to accommodate challenges faced by struggling parents. Bereft of any semblance of solicitude, outwardly possessed of a mediocre sense of empathy, and prodigiously endowed with a first-rate sense of avarice, they would rather choose to be crucified than extend deserved compassion, and they would happily unleash sheriffs to follow the parents.

Despite the fact that they would already have been fully compensated for the student withdrawn at short notice, in opting to demand full compliance with every jot and tittle of the legally binding agreements, aren’t these schools effectively stealing from the financially challenged? Isn’t this practice emblematic of the well-oiled culture of larceny that continues to be embraced by a fraction of privileged individuals and organisations?

Can shareholders of these schools stand tall and beam with satisfaction, happy about a return on investment that involved greed and harsh treatment of parents on their beam ends? Wouldn’t the pall cast by such greed reduce parents to nothing more than money dispensing machines? The truth is, the net effect of this unfortunate practice is to convert shareholders into swashbuckling blowhards.

I guess the import of venting out my pet peeves is to demand accountability and reasonableness from people vested with the power to unburden others of unnecessary hardship. Bestowed with the fundamental moral principle of magnanimity, we cannot afford to behave like we are only possessed of rudimentary social grounding. Let’s always endeavour to weigh the different perspectives applying to any matter and allow the stupendous gift of sound judgement bequeathed on us by the Creator to lead us into the hallowed space of fair decision-making.