The Botswana Congress Party (BCP) has sharply criticised the government’s proposed plan to install “digital classroom trackers” in public schools, warning that the move could usher in a new era of surveillance that violates teachers’ privacy and undermines professional trust.
In a strongly worded statement issued recentlyy, BCP Shadow Minister for Child Welfare, Basic Education and Higher Education, Caterpillar Kainangura Hikuama, described the proposal which was announced by Education Minister Nono Kgafela-Mokoka and her deputy Justin Chipo Hunyepa as “deeply alarming both in substance and implication.”
Hikuama said while the BCP supports the use of technology to enhance education, the proposed trackers risk turning classrooms into “zones of digital policing” rather than spaces for learning. “Either the minister does not understand what a digital classroom tracker entails, or the ministry genuinely intends to introduce real-time virtual monitoring of teachers,” he said. “If it is the latter, Botswana is staring at a chilling new era of digital surveillance.”
The BCP expressed concern that such monitoring could breach employment laws and data protection regulations. Hikuama added that the plan “betrays a deep contempt for the teaching profession” and reflects “a profound misalignment of priorities” in a system already struggling with overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages, and underfunded schools.
“It is reckless to imagine that scarce public funds should be spent on surveillance technology while students sit under trees and teachers buy their own chalk,” he argued.
The party further warned that digital trackers would erode teachers’ autonomy and trust, potentially creating a climate of fear. “Constant monitoring risks turning teachers into mere data points on a dashboard,” Hikuama said. “Instead of empowering teachers to perform better, it would alienate them and deepen the rift between educators and policymakers.”
The BCP also questioned the economic wisdom of the initiative, noting that the high costs of hardware, software, licensing, and maintenance would divert funds from more urgent needs such as hiring teachers, building classrooms, and improving rural school facilities.
“To propose digital trackers when many schools cannot even print examination papers or maintain toilets is to showcase the Ministry’s detachment from the lived reality of Botswana’s education sector,” Hikuama said.
On the legal front, the BCP challenged the ministry to clarify how such surveillance would align with Botswana’s Data Protection Act, whether teachers’ consent would be required, and how sensitive information would be stored and used. Failure to address these questions, Hikuama warned, could expose the ministry to constitutional and legal challenges.
Calling for a rethink, the BCP said the government should focus on fixing the basics before investing in high-tech systems. “Before we can track classrooms, we must build them. Before we can digitize teaching, we must dignify teachers,” Hikuama said.
The party concluded that technology should “serve as an enabler of education, not a tool of surveillance,” urging the ministry to instead invest in teacher development, digital literacy, and infrastructure.
“The proposed digital classroom trackers are not a visionary reform-they are a misguided distraction,” the statement read. “The BCP will continue to stand with teachers, parents, and learners in defending a public education system grounded in respect, equity, and common sense-not one governed by digital suspicion.”
