Africa-Press – Eswatini. The Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) has expressed discontent with the new fee structure of free primary education (FPE).
The fee structure for FPE per child has been increased by an average of E120 by the Ministry of Education and Training, through a gazette that was issued on September 29, 2023. The Free Primary Education Act, 2010 (Act No.1 of 2010), was amended by deleting it in its entirety and replacing it with a new schedule, which is cited as the Free Primary Education Act, (Amendment of Schedule) Notice, 2023. SNAT Secretary General Lot Vilakati said the increase was a good move by government, but it was meagre, considering that it had been over a decade since the FPE was introduced in the country and this was the first increase implementation.
Implementation
Vilakati contended that since 2010, which marked the implementation of the FPE, inflation had been taking an upward trajectory and such things as electricity and water had been going up over the years. He said the implication of this was that parents might find themselves having to pay top-up fees, because the fees were meagre, while the required items for the operation of the schools were too costly. “The consensus was that the FPE fee structure should be reviewed every year, in appreciation of the inflation, which is going up every year. What the ministry implemented in terms of the fees is not complementing what is obtaining on the ground,” he said.
Eswatini Principals Association (EPA) President Welcome Mhlanga said they engaged the Ministry of Education and Training on the issue for the past five years and in their last meeting with them and other stakeholders, they expressed their discontent with the 20 per cent increase. He said it had been at least 13 years since the FPE was implemented and in all these years, so much had happened in the markets, with inflation going up. He asserted that the consensus was that the ministry should apply a certain percentage annually, in the FPE grants to make up for all the years where same was not implemented.
Mhlanga said another bigger issue was that most parents tended to distance themselves from the business and operations of the schools, with the mentality that it was free education and that government would cater for everything. “However, we do appreciate the little that the ministry implemented, because half a loaf is better than nothing, but we do hope that a certain percentage will be put to the fees in the next academic year,” he said.
Eswatini Schools Committee and Parents Association (ESCAPA) Deputy President Sisana Mamba, who is also the Chairperson of the School Committee at Ekukhanyeni Primary School, shared that as parents, they were greatly affected by the meagre increase in the fees, in the sense that some schools ended up making parents pay extra fees just to get by, particularly in the area of food, which had shot up more than a skyrocket over the years.
“One of the biggest challenges is that some of the schools have a small enrolment and those tend to be greatly affected because what they get from government in terms of the FPE is way less than schools where the enrolment is high,” she said. She also mentioned that in some schools, the teachers reduced the stipulated minutes in the quest to allow the scholars to go home early because there was no food, one item which she said was a thorn in the flesh for many schools as it was costly.
Ministry of Education and Training Director of Schools Dr Lenhle Dlamini, said the country was currently in an economic recovery period and inasmuch as the ministry would have appreciated a reasonable increase in the fee structure, it was not possible at the current time. She said that they engaged the Ministry of Finance, requesting funding to implement the increase in FPE grants and what they implemented was what the ministry (Finance) could afford to hand to them at the time.
“We are cognizant of the high inflation rate, but as a ministry, we only accept what has been presented to us by the Ministry of Finance and looking at the fiscal situation, we have to be mindful of their affordability,” she said. Dlamini said there was always room for the Ministry of Education and Training to make another monetary request to the Ministry of Finance and when the situation permitted, another increase would be implemented.
Worth noting is that the Grade VII fees went down by E205, as the examination fee, which stood at E340 in the initial fee structure, was not included in the one that has been amended.
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