More than six
in ten schools in Swaziland / eSwatini do not have enough teachers because of
government financial cutbacks, the Eswatini
Principals Association (EPA) President Welcome Mhlanga said.
Hiring of teachers has been
frozen and if the problems is not solved soon, some schools will ‘collapse’ he
said.
Schools are also suffering
because government has not paid the Free Primary Education (FPE) grant,
something it is required to do under the kingdom’s constitution. It also has
not paid special grants for orphaned and vulnerable (OVC) children.
The Swazi Observer reported, ‘He said the
freezing of recruitments is one of the thorny issues that are troubling
schools. He stated that over 60 percent of schools in the country do not have
enough teachers.
‘The shortage of teachers
compromises the completion of the syllabus, as well as the quality of results
that the country will produce.
‘“If these challenges are
not solved on time, schools will collapse,” he said.’
The Swaziland National
Association of Teachers (SNAT) plans to march on government on Thursday (18
July 2019) to deliver a petition calling for more teachers to be hired. SNAT
says that examinations are due to start in less than two months but many
children have not been taught because of the shortage.
Public
services across Swaziland are grinding to a halt because the government is
broke. The government is not elected by the people but handpicked by King
Mswati III who rules as an absolute monarch.
At the end of June 2019 public service unions said
they would only work three days a week unless a long-running claim
for cost-of-living wage increases was agreed.
Government needs to find
E151.9 million (US$11 million) for the primary schools across the kingdom to
fund 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.
At the end of 2018 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.
See also
Chaos
and confusion across Swaziland as new school year starts
Armed
Police Deployed in Schools Across Swaziland to Ensure Exams Take Place During
Teacher Pay Dispute
Swaziland
teachers want U.S. to tell absolute monarch to stop wasting public money on
himself
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