Principal Education Officers eager to go to court

Some Principal Education Officers (PEO) in Kgatleng are still bitter that levels of operation implemented by the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) in 2013 effectively downgraded them.

Their bone of contention is that in terms of the pay structure, they are now equal to or below primary and secondary school heads whom they supervise. They are waiting for the case to be re-allocated after Justice David Newman of the Gaborone High Court, who was to hear it, was appointed Botswana’s Ambassador to the United States. They have instructed Motlhala Rabashwa Ketshabile Attorneys to act on their behalf while the Attorney General is the respondent.

In their founding affidavit, the PEOs argue that as supervisors of school heads, they had legitimate expectations that their grades would be elevated when the new levels of operation were introduced. “They review the performance of school heads, attend to their applications for leave and the head teachers report directly to them,” the affidavit reads.

The PEOs further argue that even when their jobs are advertised, supervision of head teachers is usually indicated under duties that they are to perform. When levels of operation were implemented in March 2013, MoE elevated secondary school heads to D1 scale while their deputies were elevated to D2. Primary school heads were elevated to D2 and their deputies to D3.
At any rate, they also argue, they are more qualified than school heads.

“Alternatively, as supervisors to school heads, the entire cadre of education officers avers that they are entitled to have their grades elevated accordingly. Even in terms of qualifications, education officers are generally more qualified than school heads. More importantly, while the entry level qualification for education officers is a Bachelor’s degree, the entry level qualification for school heads is lower,” the affidavit asserts.

On the other hand, MoE argues that since the implementation of the new levels of operation, education officers no longer supervise school heads and they do not report directly to them. The directive on levels of operation affected only teachers and not other cadres, the ministry says.

It argues that primary school heads report to Chief Education Officers while directors of regional operations supervise secondary school heads. MoE argues that education officers are not necessarily more qualified than school heads.