Africa-Press – Eswatini. Dear honourable Members of Parliament (MPs), I am a teacher by profession who is very passionate about education. First of all, I would like to congratulate you on your election to this honourable task. You have assumed your responsibility at a time when the education system is in intensive care unit (ICU). Akuhambi kahle bahlonipheki, the country needs your serious input.
The education system has the following problems:
* Education is too expensive in the country. This has led to many dropouts from the system because parents cannot afford the exorbitant school fees. If you do not believe me, wait for the opening of schools next year. You are going to have long queues of destitute parents and pupils requesting your help. The solution to this is for government to control the amount of fees that can be paid by parents in our secondary schools. The current practice where public schools charge any amount deemed fit to them must stop. Why should public schools charge exorbitant school fees when the salaries for teachers are paid by government?
* Government must stop subsidising private schools that school fees which can only be afforded by the rich. We have schools that charge school fees of more than E30 000 yet the teachers’ salaries are paid by government. This money must be channelled to other needs of the education system.
* Secondary schools must accept all pupils from their feeder primary schools to avoid the current practice where parents fork out a lot of money for bus fare. This means that more classrooms must be built in the secondary schools to accommodate the learners.
* The issue of the monopoly in the issue of prescribed books must be dealt away with because it is one of the contributing factors to the high cost of education in the country. If parents have to fork out E400 for a prescribed textbook, what will happen to the orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs) who cannot even afford school fees, let alone uniforms?
* Government has to have a programme to assist OVCs after completing high school. Here are my questions concerning OVCs. (a) Is there a programme to assist them in terms of helping them with application fees to tertiary institutions? We only know that application fees to tertiary institutions are very expensive. (b) Is there a programme to assist those who have not done well to upgrade their results? (c) Is there a programme to assist OVCs with accommodation and upkeep expenses when they are admitted to tertiary institutions with no residences?
* There is an overdue need to have a qualification that is higher than the EGCSE so that pupils can be easily admitted to universities outside the country. We have too many pupils who have passed the EGCSE exam but have not been accepted in our tertiary institutions. All our schools must offer this qualification as opposed to having only a few schools offering it. The closure of the NSC Matric exam has taken the country backwards.
* Our national university, UNESWA, is in ICU. Government must provide permanent solutions to the perennial problems faced by our university.
* There is an overdue need to have more vocational education centres in the country. These can be built in the following areas; Buhleni, Matsanjeni South and Mankayane. There is also a need to have a government tertiary institution in northern Hhohho since currently we don’t have any. I have so many issues to discuss with you but because of space, I will end here.
We trust that you will make an effort to solve these problems. Please don’t be like a former legislator who told me that I must not talk to him about education issues because he was not the chairman of the Education Portfolio Committee. May I wish you the best bahlonishwa.
Source: times
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