Africa-Press – Eswatini. Government and the Baha’i Schools Board of Directors are at odds over the running of the school.
The situation is so serious that the school’s board of directors vehemently refused to convene a special meeting called by the ministry of education and training to relay a message to parents last week.
The board of directors advised parents that there would be no meeting as the grantee and the board were not consulted about the meeting and its agenda.
“The grantee and the board were not consulted about the meeting and its agenda, so the meeting is unprocedural and violates the dictates of the constitution of school committees,” reads part of the letter endorsed by Thoko Ngubeni, on behalf of the board of directors to parents.
“This therefore, means the school’s premises, classrooms and hall will not be available for the meeting,” reads another part of the letter.
The ministry of education and training wrote back to the school insisting that the meeting be convened through Schools Manager, Lungelo Nhlengetfwa, who ordered the school’s principals, as government employees, to relay it to parents.
The meeting eventually took place on Thursday afternoon.
Nhlengetfwa said the ministry was not pleased with the school’s handling of its finances, in particular how the current set up of its account did not allow for auditing by the by the auditor general’s office, yet the school was a mission school, with government paying a majority of the teachers’ salaries.
The schools manager confirmed that he had to write another letter to parents and explained that the ministry was not meddling in the school’s affairs, but merely intervening and executing its mandate of ensuring the provision of access to quality education.
“We found that the school has one account for the kindergarten, primary and high school, which is unprocedural,” disclosed Nhlengetfwa.
“By law, the school is supposed to have three accounts, which are independently handled by the principals.
This is where the Baha’i Board is misinformed,” he added.
The schools account is allegedly a personal account belonging to the mission, which cannot be accessed by principals.
Baha’i High School Principal, Audrey Mhlongo, who arrived at the school in January, is said to have found herself caught in the firing line for trying to do things by the book as per the ministry’s stipulations. She was allegedly locked out of the school once and needed the intervention of the police to regain access.
“I unfortunately cannot comment to the media about the matter because I report to the ministry of education, and have already done so,” Mhlongo said briefly. She, however, confirmed the confusion over last week’s meeting and said it ended up being attended by only about 90 parents.
During the meeting, parents are said to have bitterly complained about the school fees, which they claim were now at par with those of a private institution, and that the school’s performance had drastically dropped over the past three years.
They are also said to have vowed not to pay school fees until the school sorts out the accounts as per the ministry’s directive and further accused the school board of victimising teachers who aren’t of the Baha’i faith, which in turn negatively impacts the school’s performance.
Efforts to get a comment from the school’s board of directors proved futile as the deputy who represents the mission in the school’s administration, widely referred to as Mrs Allen could not be reached on her mobile phone when called several times yesterday.
Bishop’s spokeperson Reverend Canon Sicelo Dlamini said he was working on a response when reached for comment but had not responded by the time of compiling this article.
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