TAWU to march in solidarity with SRCs

Oarabile Mosikare | Thursday December 19, 2013 15:35

 

The president of TAWU Edward Tswaipe said they were consulting SRCs of tertiary and vocational training institutions towards a joint national demonstration and joint petition to the Ministers of Education and Skills Development and Labour and Home Affairs. The event is planned for Monday, January 20, 2014 at 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm, in Gaborone, starting at GSS grounds.

Amongst the subject matters of the petition, according to Tswaipe are the Levels of Operation (LoO), persecution of SRCs in tertiary and vocational institutions and privatisation of Department of Tertiary Education Financing (DTEF).

Other issues are lack of consultation by Education Ministry on major issues affecting staff, students and learning, for example Zimbabwe Memorandum of Understanding and closure of Francistown College of Education.

The other subject matters include the governance, quality assurance and freedom of association in private tertiary and private vocational institutions, call for review of Botswana Technical Education Programme (BTEP), national internship and national service programme and call for a split of the Education Ministry.

Tswaipe said the key theme in the demonstration is to build a consciousness around the common destinies and interests of lecturers and students.

“That whenever learning and the curriculum are affected, it is the business of both staff and students of training institutions.

The employability of our students is also a concern for staff in training institutions. Many students of tertiary and vocational institutions are also in-service students in our training institutions. The quality of learning and programmes is a concern to the union.”

He said as they consult the SRCs they are also working on the logistics, including permission for rallying point, police permit and notice to recipient ministries.  “We prefer to form a joint organising committee for the event,” he said, adding that they are also consulting other sections of the teaching and education cadres who have been excluded from the LoO to join the demonstration.

“We will also reach out to the Botswana National Youth Council (BNYC) regarding youth unemployment and skills development issues, as well as other trade unions in the education sector. This is a peaceful expression of our views regarding the issues at hand,” the unionist concluded.