Schools in Swaziland /
eSwatini face chaos and confusion as the new academic year starts. Teachers are
to strike, the government cannot afford to finance education and many pupils
face exclusion because they do not have official identity documents.
Schools were due to return
on Tuesday (22 January 2019) but this was in doubt following an announcement
from the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) that a
series of union meetings would take place across the kingdom during
the week. SNAT will also be joining a national strike of public service workers
due for 28 January 2019.
They are in a long-running
dispute with government over cost of living wage adjustments. Unions have asked
for 6.5 percent but
the government says it is broke and has offered zero percent.
Meanwhile, it is doubtful
that the government can afford to pay schools the fees they need so they can
operate. Government needs to find E151.9 million for the primary schools across
the kingdom to fund free primary education (FPE). There are about 650 primary
schools in Swaziland. The Swazi Constitution requires that all children in the
kingdom receive free primary education. For eight years until last year the
European Union had paid about E140 million a year toward the cost of FPE.
Initially, the EU said it
would fund FPE for all primary school pupils until 2016. After the initial
period elapsed the financial support was extended until the end of 2018.
There are about 330,000
pupils at school in Swaziland, including about 240,000 at primary schools. The government
pays a minimum of E560 per pupil for primary pupils.
Minister of Education and
Training Lady Mabuza told
the Times of Swaziland government did not yet have a plan to pay fees in
the absence of the EU sponsorship.
‘We’ve not engaged on the
issue much but the EU stated that they were withdrawing last year and
government has to take over,’ Mabuza said.
At the end of last year the
Ministry of Education and Training had to pay more
than E40 million to cover the cost of sending police and prison
wardens into schools to
invigilate examinations while teachers were in dispute.
Meanwhile, many children
will not be able to attend school because they do not have the correct
documentation. Head teachers in many primary schools say
they will not accept pupils
who do not have Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) issued by the
government.
Last year the government
refused to fund pupils who did not hold PINs. The Ministry said
to avoid audit queries it had to pay fees against a PIN not a name of a pupil.
There are also reports that
schools will not receive much needed materials such as stationery because
suppliers have not been paid. At primary school each child needs at least
14 exercise books and seven text books. One
supplier located in Manzini told the Times of Swaziland his company was owed E300,000.
It is not clear whether the
government has paid food suppliers. In the past two years children who relied
on government food aid – known as the zondle programme –
had gone hungry when bills were left unpaid.
The problems at schools do not
end at primary level. An investigation by the Swazi Observer in January last year revealed that some high schools
charged nearly E9,000 per child per year in top-up fees. It also found that
some schools were not allowing children, including OVCs (orphaned and
vulnerable children) to attend classes until deposits on fees were paid.
The Ministry of Education
then announced that no school in Swaziland had been given permission to charge
top-up fees because none had made the necessary formal request to do so.
Permission can take up to a year.
Also last year children were turned away because there
were no spaces for them in classes at High School. This was because the kingdom
had in recent years introduced FPE and children had graduated and there were
not enough places for them in secondary schools. Parents were reported by local
media to be walking from school to school in unsuccessful attempts to get their
children placed.
See also
Primary
schools grinding to a halt
https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/03/primary-schools-grinding-to-halt.html
Swaziland schools in chaos
Swaziland schools in chaos
Children
told ‘prepare for starvation’
End
of free Swazi primary schooling
https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/end-of-free-swazi-primary-schooling.html
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