Pupils at a school in
Swaziland (eSwatini) boycotted classes in protest at a shortage of teachers.
Education is in crisis
across the kingdom because the government is broke. Many schools are short of
teachers and support staff and without basic supplies because the government
has not paid suppliers.
The protest took place at KaMkhweli
High School on Wednesday (11 March 2020). Pupils had also protested last month.
In the latest protest
police were called after senior pupils led a class boycott and chanted slogans
and waved tree branches at the school gates.
The Times of eSwatini reported,
‘According to a source, since the beginning of the year, Form V pupils have not
been learning science subjects, geography and history because there are no
teachers specialising in the aforementioned subjects.’
It added some pupils
allegedly made threats against teachers.
They returned to classes
after Siphofaneni Member of Parliament Mduduzi Simelane mediated between pupils
and school authorities.
Police said no damage was
done to property during the protest.
Public services across Swaziland, where King Mswati
III rules as an absolute monarch, are in meltdown because the government he
handpicked is broke.
In January 2020 it was reported six in ten school support staff had not been paid
for the previous three months.
Phumelele Zulu of the Swaziland Union in Learning and
Allied Institutions (SULAI) said 60 percent of its 860 members were owed
salaries amounting to E5 million.
In July 2019 Minister of Education and Training Lady
Howard-Mabuza met school principals as schools in the kingdom crumbled
through lack of funding.
The Swazi Government had not paid schools fees and
support staff were sacked as a result. Teaching supplies ran out and in some
schools pupils had been without a teacher for more than a year.
The Minister said that plans for building new schools
had been put on hold and hiring of teaching staff was frozen.
More than six in ten schools in Swaziland did not have
enough teachers because of government financial cutbacks, the eSwatini
Principals Association (EPA) President Welcome Mhlanga had
previously said.
Howard-Mabuza said the government was broke and could
not afford to finance education.
The problem is not new as the government has run the
economy into the ground over many years. Public services across the kingdom,
including health,
education
and policing
are crumbling. It is unclear how much the government owes and it has itself reported
the figure as E4.2 billion (US$260 million) and E2.2 billion.
See also
Swaziland schools run out supplies, exams
threatened, as govt financial meltdown bites
Swaziland
Government blocks funds to primary schools in row over pupil numbers
Swaziland
breaks promise to pay off its suppliers to halt public services meltdown
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