Education and abuse in Botswana

The pervasiveness of teacher-student sexual affairs is alarming. In the late eighties and early nineties, such cases were prevalent but the authorities moved in and instituted drastic measures to arrest the situation. However, lately, there are increasing reports of teacher-student "love" affairs. Surely, love does not form the basis of such a union ... Just last week, we reported complaints by some University of Botswana students who accused some lecturers of demanding sexual favours in exchange for good grades. We are just wondering whether what is traditionally known as a "cooperation fee" in some West African tertiary institutions, is also becoming institutionalised in Botswana. The behaviour of these teachers and lecturers are not only psychologically destructive to our children but also expose them to infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS ... Botswana Secondary School Teachers' Union (BOSETU) president, Eric Ditau, reportedly said they "can only take action if the members violate the union constitution". But a constitution can be amended to make it bite. The least that unions can do right now is to take the approach as explained by Botswana Teachers' Union president, Japhta Radibe. The union embarks on own investigations and should the concerned members be found to have erred, then the union offers them no protection. But we still believe the unions should also compile a register of convicted teachers and ban them from getting close to students ever again. We cannot agree more with UB Professor Richard Tabulawa's wish that the "nation could come up with a law to restrain elders, not just teachers, from engaging in sexual relationships with students ...