SOS SENT FOR STARVING CHILDREN

Schools across Swaziland are pleading with businesses and members of the public to donate food for starving children because the Swazi Government has failed to pay its bills.

A crisis has been growing over recent months and there are fears that children might die as a result.

The situation grows worse with each passing day, school principals said. It started at the beginning of the year when the Government failed to deliver food to schools as part of an established feeding scheme. It said it did not have the money to buy food.

The hardest hit, according to local media, are primary schools because they completely rely on government for financial assistance since the introduction of the Free Primary Education programme. 

The Swazi Observer reported (29 June 2017) the Swaziland Principals Association (SWAPA) met with the Minister of Education and Training Phineas Magagula without any positive results, ‘because government is facing money problems at the moment’. 

Magagula confirmed to the newspaper that nothing tangible came out of the meeting to find a solution to the food crisis.

It quoted SWAPA President Welcome Mhlanga saying schools were asking ‘the nation, companies and organisations to come to the rescue and save the situation’. 

He said, ‘The situation on the ground is worsening with each passing day. There are pupils that kept coming to school because of the food but now that there is no food some are choosing to stay away.’

The newspaper added, ‘Mhlanga said the situation was dire and it was time for all to help.’

Last week the Times of Swaziland reported school administrators had sent a number of requests to government, asking it to act fast on the matter because they feared that they would soon start losing lives due to hunger in schools. 

In a report in May 2017, the World Food Program estimated 350,000 people of Swaziland’s 1.1 million population were in need of food assistance. WFP helped 65,473 of them. It said it was regularly feeding 52,000 orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) aged under eight years at neighbourhood care points. About 45 percent of all children in thought to be OVCs.

It reported chronic malnutrition affected 26 percent of all children in Swaziland aged under five.

See also

‘CHILDREN COULD SOON DIE OF HUNGER’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2017/06/children-could-soon-die-of-hunger.html

BAD FOOD POISONS 200 PUPILS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2017/06/bad-food-poisons-200-swazi-pupils.html

NO FOOD SO SCHOOLKIDS SENT HOME

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2017/06/no-food-so-schoolkids-sent-home.html

HUNGER FORCES SCHOOLS TO CLOSE EARLY

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2017/02/hunger-forces-schools-to-close-early.html

KING’S ROLE IN SCHOOLS CHAOS IGNORED

A command made by Swaziland’s autocratic King Mswati III that schools must not charge parents top-up fees is about to be overturned following years of confusion.

And, Swazi Government ministers and the media in the kingdom are rewriting history to erase the King’s part in the chaos.

In February 2014, in a speech opening Parliament King Mswati, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, made the directive to abolish top-up fees even though the government he hand-picked did not have a plan to implement it. 

In Swaziland, the King’s word is a proclamation. Once he speaks nobody is allowed to question him. 

In his 2014 speech the King said, ‘We must encourage the development of local facilities and the improvement of the quality of our education to match the standards of foreign countries. It is not enough, however, to just educate our children to become job seekers.’

Top-up fees allowed principals to charge parents more than the basic school fee. This allowed schools to be able to fund many basic activities. Principals complained that the money paid by government was too meagre to run the schools and a majority of them opted for top-up fees to make up for the shortage. 

Within months reports were circulating in the kingdom that most schools had been forced to suspend activities including participation in sports and music competitions. It was estimated these extra-mural activities had halved when compared to recent years.

The Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by the King, reported in 2015 that some principals had resorted to selling sweets on behalf of their schools to raise additional funds.

It reported, ‘Swaziland Principals Association (SWAPA) President Mduduzi Bhembe confirmed the sad situation and lamented the fact that the growth of the country’s education system was taking a nosedive.’

In February 2016, school principals who defied the ban were warned they could go to jail. The Swazi Education and Training Minister Phineas Magagula said this after the Kingdom’s High Court confirmed the King’s edict that no school should charge parents top-up fees. 

The Swazi Observer reported at the time that Magagula said by charging top-up fees the principals were, ‘failing to comply with His Majesty King Mswati III’s order that such should not be paid and that no child should be deprived of education’.

Now, media in Swaziland are reporting that the Swazi Cabinet has decided to put forward a law to allow to-up fees to be charged.

The Times of Swaziland, the only independent daily newspaper in the kingdom, reported on Friday (17 February 2017), ‘Stakeholders are searching for answers to the question of how to charge top-up fees yet they (top-up fees) are legal in terms of Section 12 of the Free Primary Education Act of 2010.’

It added, ‘Phineas Magagula, the Minister of Education and Training, had submitted a proposal to cabinet to reintroduce the additional fees which schools charged over and above government grants.’

The King’s role in the top-up fee saga is being ignored. On 29 December 2016, the Swazi Observer, a newspaper described by the Media Institute of Southern Africa in a report on press freedom in Swaziland as a ‘pure propaganda machine for the royal family’, reported Magagula had submitted a proposal to cabinet to reintroduce the top-up fees.

It reported, ‘Education Minister Dr. Phineas Magagula yesterday said the decision to enforce a no top-up fee policy was not taken by an individual line minister, in this particular case being himself, but was a collective cabinet decision.

‘Any changes with regard to the implementation of the policy, Dr. Magagula said, would as such have to be taken by cabinet.’

KING DEFYING SCHOOL HEADS FACE ARREST

School principals in Swaziland will be arrested if they continue to defy an order from King Mswati III, the kingdom’s absolute monarch, and charge parents top-up fees for their children’s education.

The Swazi Education and Training Minister Phineas Magagula made this promise on Monday (15 February 2016) after the Kingdom’s High Court confirmed the King’s edict that no school should charge parents top-up fees.

The Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, reported that Magagula said by charging top-up fees the principals were ‘failing to comply with His Majesty King Mswati III’s order that such should not be paid and that no child should be deprived of education’.

Schools have been in disarray since February 2014 when the King pronounced on top-up fees in his speech opening the Swaziland Parliament, even though the government he hand-picked did not have a plan to deal with the financial shortfall this would create. 

In Swaziland the King’s word is a proclamation. Once he speaks nobody is allowed to question him.

It is this mind-set that has sent schools across the impoverished kingdom into chaos.

According to reports within Swaziland most schools have been forced to suspend activities including participation in sports and music competitions. It is estimated these extra-mural activities have halved when compared to recent years.

The Swazi Observer reported some head teachers had resorted to selling sweets on behalf of their schools to raise additional funds.

In 2015, the newspaper reported, ‘Swaziland Principals Association (SWAPA) President Mduduzi Bhembe confirmed the sad situation and lamented the fact that the growth of the country’s education system was taking a nosedive. 

‘He said as principals of schools they decried the collapse of the education system and called for government to bring an alternative to the scrapped top-up fees that were paid by parents to assist boost the schools’ coffers.’

Government introduced free primary education in 2009, starting from Grade One and in 2015 the programme was rolled out in Grade Seven, which is the last grade at primary school level. More than 240,000 pupils are enrolled in the primary education system. According to the 2012 annual education census, 95 percent of appropriate age and eligible children are able to access primary education.

Principals complained that the money paid by government was too meagre to run the schools and a majority of them opted for top-up fees to make up for the shortage. 

There are further problems ahead for Swazi schools as the kingdom only has about half the number of secondary schools than primary schools and existing secondary schools are not able to absorb all the expected primary school leavers.

SWAZI KING CREATES SCHOOLS CHAOS

A command from Swaziland’ autocratic King Mswati III abolishing top-up fees has sent schools in his kingdom spiralling into chaos.

He made the directive during his speech opening the Swazi Parliament in February 2014, even though the government he hand-picked did not have a plan to implement it.

In Swaziland the King’s word is a proclamation. Once he speaks nobody dares to question him.

It is this mind-set that has sent schools across the impoverished kingdom into chaos.

According to reports within Swaziland most schools have been forced to suspend activities including participation in sports and music competitions. It is estimated these extra-mural activities have halved when compared to recent years.

The Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by the King, reported some head teachers had resorted to selling sweets on behalf of their schools to raise additional funds.

The newspaper reported, ‘Swaziland Principals Association (SWAPA) President Mduduzi Bhembe confirmed the sad situation and lamented the fact that the growth of the country’s education system was taking a nosedive. 

‘He said as principals of schools they decried the collapse of the education system and called for government to bring an alternative to the scrapped top-up fees that were paid by parents to assist boost the schools’ coffers.’

Government introduced free primary education in 2009, starting from Grade One and this year the programme was rolled out in grade seven, which is the last grade at primary school level. Currently, more than 240,000 pupils are enrolled in the primary education system. According to the 2012 annual education census, 95 percent of appropriate age and eligible children are able to access primary education.

Principals complained that the money paid by government was too meagre to run the schools and a majority of them opted for top-up fees to make up for the shortage. 

There are further problems ahead for Swazi schools. Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Training Pat Muir told a strategic meeting with Swaziland Skills in May 2015 that the situation faced by schools was dire as the kingdom had about half the number of secondary schools than primary schools.

‘Existing secondary schools will not be able to absorb all the school leavers expected to sit for their Swaziland Primary Certificate (SPC) examination at the end of this academic year,’ the Times of Swaziland quoted him saying.