Times Of Swaziland: STATIONERY HEADACHE FOR SCHOOLS

STATIONERY HEADACHE FOR SCHOOLS
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BY STANLEY KHUMALO on 15/01/2019 01:19:00


MBABANE – Turmoil lurks for head teachers and parents come next week Tuesday
when schools open for the first term.
This is because many pupils in public schools will find themselves without
stationery.
The pounding headache for head teachers, parents and the pupils alike, will
emanate from the fact that stationery suppliers have put their foot down and
relayed that they would not be rendering their services to public schools, as a
majority of the learning institutions were in arrears.
According to the chairperson of Eswatini Stationery and Book Trade Association,
Hezekiel Mabuza, a vast number of schools were in arrears with many of their
members. He said the outstanding balance by some schools were from the past
academic year.
Mabuza was quick to also highlight that not all schools were having trouble
settling their balance with the stationery providers. The entrepreneur said most
of the schools that stood to go haywire when the academic calendar commences
next week, were those located in rural areas.
He said: “Schools in the rural areas have a low intake and when they get the
grants, they fail to settle our outstanding balances. Most complain that they
are heavily indebted.”
This, Mabuza said, was a trend with schools that solely depended on government
for their revenue. Mabuza said most of the challenges for stationery suppliers
were from primary schools, as they were the ones depending mostly on government
for the free primary education (FPE) grants.
Currently, government pays about E560 per pupil enrolled under the FPE
programme. A pupil in the lower Grades (Grade I – III) studies about seven
subjects.
Per subject, each pupil needs a class work exercise book and a test exercise
book. This tallies to about 14 exercise books and seven books per pupil, while
between Grades IV – VII, the number of stationery required triples as the
scholars will require an exercise book for taking notes, class work and tests.
The country has about 652 primary schools and about 240 000 pupils are said to
be enrolled under the FPE programme.
Meanwhile, the challenges faced by schools stationery suppliers were further
confirmed by a stationery and book supplier located in Manzini.
The businessman acknowledged that there were schools that owed his entity.
The entrepreneur said the amount owed to his stationery shop was around E300
000.
“Imagine if someone owes you this amount for the whole year while you also
have to pay rent, suppliers and remunerate staff; it just sends you under
(sic),” the businessman said.
He further said while they had these bills that were outstanding, they also had
to pay tax to Eswatini Revenue Authority (SRA) despite that they did not get the
money immediately.
This, the businessman said, was quite frustrating such that they had to seek
loans to have running capital. The entrepreneur further highlighted that not all
schools were indebted to them.
He said ‘big schools’ (which are those with a high intake) were paying on
time and or met their agreements of settling each bill within stipulated months.
An estimated figure for stationery and books, according to the businessman,
varies between E1 000 and E5 000 per pupil – depending on the grade that
particular pupil is enrolled in.
The stance by some of the stationery suppliers comes at a time when there is a
stand-off between the Ministry of Education and Training with head teachers. The
ministry last week relayed to schools that there should be no additional fees
paid by parents.
This, according to the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Education and
Training, Dr Sibongile Mtshali, was because head teachers had failed to adhere
to a procedure laid down by the ministry when seeking to charge top-up fees.