Africa-Press – Eswatini. Four demands is what the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) wants government to address, before the opening of schools.
SNAT Secretary General (SG) Lot Vilakati said they met with officials from the Ministry of Education and Training yesterday, to present their demands on what they anticipated to be done before the opening of schools for the year 2024.
Vilakati said, among these issues, was the shortage of food for the schools feeding schemes, shortage of teachers in schools and the casualisation of their profession. He said government, through the Teaching Service Commission (TSC), should employ 4 000 teachers in schools on a permanent and pensionable basis as keeping them on contracts was costly to educators.
Available
He further stated that the posts were already available, as they had been created by some educators who resigned due to various reasons, while others exited due to natural attrition. He said: “TSC should employ 4 000 permanent teachers to ease the workload. Schools should not open without recruiting teachers. Many teachers have resigned, died and retired. This burdens the minimal teachers.”
The SG said government should also hire teachers for Grade 0 and have all schools enrolling learners for this class. This, he said, was necessary, as government was permitting private colleges and government-sponsored institutions to enrol students for this course, yet after graduating, they were not employed. He said the personnel should have posting letters before the opening of schools, failing which; the union would convene a general council (GC) to deliberate on the next step to be taken by the union.
Also, he said they implored government to recruit teachers on a permanent basis, as hiring them on a contract basis had no benefit and, therefore, they were working with no pension, which would result in their next-of-kin getting nothing when they passed on. This, he said, was to their detriment, as there was also a stipulation that government did not recruit people above the age of 50. Vilakati said their cadre aged while working on contract, which limited their pension, despite that they were qualified graduates.
“Female teachers also don’t get maternity leave, as they are on contract despite that civil servants are awarded three months,” he said. Vilakati also said some contract teachers ended up having many lessons to teach, as they were threatened with the non-renewal of their contracts. He said teachers also ended up having extra hours despite that there was no overtime for them. Another challenge, he said, was the renewal of contracts for those recruited on this term.
Challenges
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 school calendar for the year begins. On another note, he said government should ensure that schools had food for the feeding scheme when they opened. This, he said, would be achieved by delivering the food on time to all schools. It is worth noting, that recently, the Ministry of Education and Training presented that government was currently feeding 874 public schools. From these schools, 594 are primaries, while the difference are secondary and high schools.
It was said in the Hhohho Region, 160 primaries were benefitting, while 70 secondary and high schools were enrolled under the Eswatini Schools Feeding Programme. In the Manzini Region, it was said there were 158 primary schools and 74 secondary or high schools, while there were 145 primary schools and 71 secondary and or high schools in the Shiselweni Region. In the Lubombo Region, pupils from 131 primaries and 65 secondary and or high schools were benefitting.
Meanwhile, Vilakati said government should pay all related to the operation of schools. These grants are the free primary education (FPE) and also the orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) grants, which are contributed by government for pupils. The FPE grant has since been increased with E120, from E560 per year to E680 for every pupil enrolled in government schools, while the OVC grants vary as they cater for high school learners.
Vilakati said they were calling for government to release 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.
Another demand, he said, was the supply of stationery to schools before they opened for the year. Vilakati said the opening of schools without meeting the four demands was detriment to the learners, as they twiddled their hands all-day-long and or broke early. This, he said, contributed to the poor results at the end of the year, which reflected badly on teachers. He said the assumption was that teachers were falling short in executing their duties, yet they were without the adequate resources to execute what was expected of them.
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