Two (2) days ago, His Excellency the President Dr. Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi addressed the nation, the highlight of his address was the closure of schools for a period of one (1) month.
The closure of schools, which takes effect tomorrow (Friday 16 July 2021) will persist until Tuesday 17 August 2021.
While responding the President’s national address today before the national assembly, the Leader of Opposition (LOO)- Dumelang Saleshando said the government should use the time to also vaccinate teachers and the non-teaching staff.
“Government needs to now act with haste and vaccinate all teachers as well as non-teaching staff in schools irrespective of age before schools reopen. Failure to do this will only result in a possible crisis for the education sector. We need to assure the teachers that they will be vaccinated before schools reopen. Other front liners like the Police and Immigration workers at points of entry also need to be vaccinated within the shortest possible time.” Saleshando advised.
Though he applauds the move to temporarily close down schools, the Leader of Opposition is not happy that the government took long to respond. “We support the decision to close schools. It is a pity that the President only yielded to the pressure for schools to be closed after more than 60 deaths of teachers and threat of court action. There was clear evidence that our schools had become super spreaders and the advent of winter exacerbated the spread of the virus in schools.” he charged.
Earlier this week, the two Educator Trade Unions; Botswana Teachers Union (BTU), and Botswana Sectors of Educators Trade Union (BOSETU) issued out a statement in which they expressed displeasure on how the government treats teachers. In the statement, the two Unions announced that they will drag the government to court for such on Friday.
