{"id":42310,"date":"2024-01-23T17:56:12","date_gmt":"2024-01-23T17:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/?p=42310"},"modified":"2024-01-23T15:19:04","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T15:19:04","slug":"its-all-systems-go-minister-owen-ps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/its-all-systems-go-minister-owen-ps","title":{"rendered":"IT\u2019S ALL SYSTEMS GO \u2013 MINISTER OWEN, PS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Eswatini. <\/strong><\/span>The ministry of education and training has confirmed that the opening of schools for the 2024 academic year is today.<\/b><\/p>\n

Minister of education and training Owen Nxumalo said schools would open today as scheduled by the government calendar.<\/p>\n

The minister was making clarity on the issue after Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) and the Eswatini Schools Committee and Parents Association (ESCAPA) called for the schools opening to be postponed.<\/p>\n

Nxumalo said schools were opening today regardless of the demands that SNAT wanted to be addressed before government can open schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect every pupil to be at school today because food and stationery have been delivered in most of the schools.<\/p>\n

We also have people on the ground assessing the situation in the schools that were affected by the storms, which shows that we are ready to open,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the ministry was doing all they could to fix the schools and that cannot be used as a hindrance to open schools.<\/p>\n

He added that the different ministries would visit the affected schools this week to monitor their progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thank government for doing everything they could to make sure that micro project fixes this situation before schools open,\u201d said Nxumalo.<\/p>\n

He said the delegation would also be looking at challenges that led to the underperformance of some schools in their Form 3 and Grade V11 examinations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will be led by the Deputy prime minister, who will monitor the progress of schools like Maphiveni Primary school.<\/p>\n

We will also visit the schools which did not perform well in their external examinations to check if lack of resources contributed to them underperforming,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Principal secretary in the ministry Bheki Gama said as far as he was concerned schools were opening today. He said no one had the power to stop schools from opening if he had not closed them.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who are not responsible for taking care of the schools and paying teachers cannot tell us what to do,\u201d said Gama.<\/p>\n

Gama also added that they cannot be able to observe and attend to some of the challenges when the pupils are not at school.<\/p>\n

He said if they can work towards solving every problem before schools open, they can close them forever. Director of Education Ntfombilenhle Dlamini also added that parents were expecting schools to open today.<\/p>\n

Dlamini said the ministry could not address the challenges at once and when schools are closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is painful to witness the situation when schools remain closed. We have suffered a lot during the COVID-19 pandemic era and the cohort that was produced from that is one complicated group, which is what is concerning to parents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

ESCAPA Deputy President Sisana Mamba said there was nothing that they could do now because the ministry has confirmed that schools are opening today.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still feel like schools opening should have been postponed to a later date because the basic resources are still not there in some schools.<\/p>\n

We want our children to receive quality education so that they can also perform and compete in other countries,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

SNAT secretary general Lot Vilakati said they were now somehow in agreement with the ministry in opening schools today.<\/p>\n

He said the ministry has delivered stationery in schools, but were still waiting for food to be delivered.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have also released posting letters for teachers who had expired contracts and this gives us hope,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nhlanganiso Gumbi, a Form 1 pupil at Mbabane Central, said he was happy that schools were opening today.<\/p>\n

He said he was visiting his paternal homestead for the weekend and returned to her mother\u2019s flat as he knew that schools were opening.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am relieved that schools are opening after such long holidays. I was starting to forget some of the things I learnt last year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Celinhlanhla Hlophe also stated that she was happy to be going to school tomorrow.<\/p>\n

She said she was looking forward to her Form 3 class and spending time with her friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy friends are the only thing that I missed about school and this year I have to commit myself to my studies, as this it is going to be a long year for me but I am happy that we are finally opening,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Eswatini<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Eswatini. The ministry of education and training has confirmed that the opening of schools for the 2024 academic year is today. Minister of education and training Owen Nxumalo said schools would open today as scheduled by the government calendar. The minister was making clarity on the issue after Swaziland National Association of Teachers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":42309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[234,248,249],"class_list":["post-42310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-eswatini","tag-eswatini"],"yoast_head":"\nIT\u2019S ALL SYSTEMS GO \u2013 MINISTER OWEN, PS - Eswatini<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The ministry of education and training has confirmed that the opening of schools for the 2024 academic year is today. ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/its-all-systems-go-minister-owen-ps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"IT\u2019S ALL SYSTEMS GO \u2013 MINISTER OWEN, PS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The ministry of education and training has confirmed that the opening of schools for the 2024 academic year is today. ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/its-all-systems-go-minister-owen-ps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Eswatini\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-01-23T17:56:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/sites\/33\/2024\/01\/sm_1706010397.680023.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/its-all-systems-go-minister-owen-ps#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/its-all-systems-go-minister-owen-ps\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"IT\u2019S ALL SYSTEMS GO \u2013 MINISTER OWEN, PS\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-23T17:56:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/its-all-systems-go-minister-owen-ps\"},\"wordCount\":737,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/its-all-systems-go-minister-owen-ps#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/sites\/33\/2024\/01\/sm_1706010397.680023.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Eswatini\",\"Eswatini\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/its-all-systems-go-minister-owen-ps#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/its-all-systems-go-minister-owen-ps\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/its-all-systems-go-minister-owen-ps\",\"name\":\"IT\u2019S ALL SYSTEMS GO \u2013 MINISTER OWEN, PS - 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