Africa-Press – Eswatini. Schools might not open next Tuesday.
This is so because the Ministry of Education and Training is considering postponing the opening of schools due to a number of reasons. This was revealed by the Minister of Education and Training, Lady Mabuza, yesterday. In an interview, Mabuza said currently, the ministry was still consulting on the possibility of the postponement of schools opening next week, which, according to the minister, was under consideration. She said this was necessitated by the fact that the time available for pupils to secure spaces in various schools and make payments was not enough. Mabuza said the results, to be released later today, would reach schools tomorrow and Friday, hence parents would not have enough time to search for spaces.
Commended
The minister commended the markers for the speed applied when marking pupils’ scripts. Furthermore, she said releasing results simultaneously was not happening for the first time as last year it happened in almost all the grades. The minister had been asked why Grade VII and Junior Certificate results were released simultaneously. Meanwhile, teachers have resolved not to go to work unless their six demands are met. This is according to the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT). In a press briefing yesterday afternoon, SNAT Secretary General (SG) Lot Vilakati invited employed and unemployed educators to partake in the delivery of a petition on Friday.
Petition
Vilakati said the petition would be delivered to the Ministry of Public Service at 11am. The SG informed those who would take part in the delivery of the petition that they would assemble at the ministry’s gate and proceed to deliver the petition. The SG also extended the invitation to take part in the delivery of the petition to the mass democratic movement (MDM). He said the union was having bilateral engagements with the Ministry of Education and Training and part of the issues they were still engaging on included what they wanted to draw attention to before the opening of schools. Officially, schools are expected to open on January 17, 2023 (Tuesday). Vilakati said among the issues was the shortage of food for the schools feeding scheme, shortage of teachers and the casualisation of their profession.
He said the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) should employ teachers on a permanent and pensionable basis, because keeping them on contracts was costly to the educators. Vilakati said a teacher employed on a contract basis had no benefits and, therefore, they were working with no pension, which would result in their next-of-kin getting nothing when they died. This, he said, was to their detriment as there was also a stipulation that government should not recruit staff above the age of 50. Vilakati said their members aged while working on contract, which limited their pension despite that they were qualified graduates.
Maternity
“Female teachers also don’t get maternity leave as they are on contract, despite that civil servants are given three months’ maternity leave,” he said. Vilakati also mentioned that some contract teachers ended up having many lessons to teach as they were threatened with non-renewal of their contracts. He said some teachers would also work extra hours despite that there was no overtime for teachers. Another challenge, he said, was the renewal of contracts for those recruited on this basis. Vilakati said some teachers faced challenges when their contracts were not renewed as they accrued arrears. He said contract teachers should have their contracts renewed before the start of the academic year. He said: “The TSC should employ 5 000 teachers on permanent basis to ease the workload. Schools should not open without recruiting teachers. Many teachers have resigned, died and retired. This burdens the minimal teachers. One school had four teachers and two of these educator’s contracts have lapsed which means only a pair is left in the school now.”
Emphasised
Vilakati emphasised that the number of required teachers exceeded 5 000. He said government should hire teachers for Grade 0 and have all schools enrolling learners for this class.
“This is necessary as government ‘is permitting private colleges and government-sponsored institutions to enrol students for this course yet after graduation, they are not employed’.”
Vilakati further pointed out that to not hire teachers was a form of union bashing. On the other hand, he said schools were ill-prepared for opening for this school calendar as there was no food. Vilakati said they needed food to be delivered in schools and that it should be available the whole year.
Furthermore, he said government should pay all grants related to the operations of schools. These grants are the free primary education (FPE) and also the orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs), which are contributed by government for pupils. The FPE grant has since its inception in 2010 been set at E560 per year per pupil, while the OVC grants vary as they cater for high school learners. He said they were calling for government to pay for the aforementioned grants because schools were in arrears, had no running water and or electricity. This, he said, rendered the schools unfit to operate as these basic services were essential for their day-to-day operations.
Complaining
Also, he said their members were complaining about issues that included the remuneration of head teachers. Vilakati said SNAT was calling for equal remuneration of primary and high school head teachers and their deputies. He said this was an issue they had addressed in the appeals of the 2016 salary review exercise, which formed part of the joint negotiation forum (JNF). This, he said, they expected to be addressed by April 1, 2023, which was the beginning of the new government financial year. Vilakati said the status quo, with regard to the salaries of primary school deputy head teachers, head teachers, high school deputy head teachers and high school head teachers, was dividing the working class. “If this is not implemented, we shall approach the Industrial Court.” On the other hand, he said they were calling for the recruitment of senior teachers in all schools because they ended up performing duties that were designated to deputy head teachers.
Paid
He said the senior teachers should be paid on a scale of D4 as they stated in their appeals. Also, he said teachers with Bachelor Degrees should be paid on the C5 scale and not the C3 which they were currently paid based on. Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Training, Bhekithemba Gama, said: “This is misdirected as they should have engaged the ministry first.” He said the union would then opt to deliver a petition if they were not content with the responses that would have been given by the ministry.
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