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Majority of Students Molested By Teachers in Botswana

By Caitlin Davies
Inter Press Service

GABORONE, Apr 4 (IPS) - New research suggests 60 percent of secondary school students in Botswana are abused by their teachers -- shocking figures anywhere, but particularly so in southern Africa's most peaceful and admired country.

The government has, since independence in 1966, placed great emphasis on the value of education. Access to schooling is regarded as a basic human right and a major contributor to economic growth and social progress.

The vast majority of children receive 10 years of fee basic education. But today at least 11 percent of students - mainly girls -- are considering dropping out of school because of sexual harassment.

From 1986 to 1997, girls made up about 52 percent of students at secondary level. In recent years this has been declining and it is feared that the increase in sexual abuse is partly to blame.

According to researcher, Stefania Rossetti, sexual harassment by teachers and consensual sexual relations between teachers and students is more widespread than most schools care to admit. In a just published document called 'Children in school: a safe place?', she describes the situation in the North-West district as grim.

In a survey of 560 students, 67 percent said they had been subjected to, among other things, unsolicited touching, patting or pinching and pressure for dates. A quarter said they had been subjected to such harassment on a regular basis.

Twenty percent said they had been asked by teachers to have sex with them. Almost half (42 percent) of these accepted, mainly because they feared lower grades if they refused.

The vast majority of students believe that having a sexual relationship with their teachers is wrong. They say students lose concentration, fail exams and end up on the streets. They also worry about pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases such as the HIV virus. Botswana currently has among the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the world, now standing at 25 percent. In Rossetti's survey, an average of 11 percent of students said they wanted to quit school because a teacher had asked for sexual favours. Among those in Form One, the first year of secondary school, 17 percent said they were ready to opt out.

Although violence against women is publicly condemned at the highest level, sexual harassment remains one of its most acceptable forms. Many men think it is a way to ''soften women'' who they believe enjoy the ''attention''. And while the government has signed numerous international agreements that condemn violence against women, the effects of these are still to trickle down to the grassroots.

New gender policies, such as the 1995 Policy on Women in Development, are yet to be implemented. Produced by the Women's Affairs Unit, it noted increasing sexual harassment in schools and described the situation as life threatening due to the rapid spread of HIV.

The country's code of conduct for teachers, produced in 1974 and never reviewed, is silent on the matter of sexual harassment or consensual sexual relations. The Ministry of Education has no policy in place.

There is also no procedure for lodging complaints within schools themselves. Under Botswana's centralised education system, reporting a case of sexual harassment would mean travelling up to hundreds of kilometers to the nearest regional education office. The matter, if followed up, would then be reported to the Teacher Service Management in the capital Gaborone. For schools in the North-West district this would mean a journey of at least 1,000 kms.

Students generally believe it is more risky to report a teacher, than if they stay quiet. According to Rossetti, sexual harassment in schools is ''essentially an unreported crime''. Head teachers are nervous about allowing outsiders into their schools, fearing they will become targets of ''witch hunts''.

Until now there has been virtually no research on the topic and the authorities, both local and central, have reacted defensively to reports in the press. Many students see harassment as an inevitable part of school life and many teachers have come to believe it is behaviour they can get away with.

In some cases guilty teachers are simply warned not to do it again, others are transferred to another school where the practice continues.

Until recently the Ministry of Education had been accused of ignoring calls to intervene in schools. Botswana's only rape crisis centre, situated in the north, had been attempting to meet with the former minister to discuss the issue for several years.

Things are looking up, however, with the appointment of a new minister, Ponatshego Kedikilwe, following last year's general elections. The Ministry's secondary schools department is now in the process of consulting with women's and human rights NGOs on a policy covering sexual harassment.

In addition, the plan is to produce a step-by-step procedure for lodging complaints within schools and amend the teachers code of conduct to provide the protection students so sorely need.

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