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Feel the fear but do it anyway

25/08/2012 00:00:00 Mphiyakhe M. Ntuli

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Have you ever imagined how the world would have been had there not been fear? The worst fear in life is the fear to liberate yourself. Fear of moving away from slavery and regaining your life. Fear of saying enough is enough. Fear of being different. Fear of spreading your wings and realising the best out of you. At the bottom of every one of your fears, is simply the fear that you can’t handle what life may bring you.

Liberate Yourself

If you can’t liberate yourself then you can’t liberate the world. You can’t lead if you can’t lead yourself. You can’t motivate others if you can’t motivate yourself. You can’t preach democracy if your organisation is autocratic. You can’t criticise if you can’t handle criticism. You can’t preach accountability if you can’t handle your own salary. Research indicates that the grave is the richest place on earth. It is loaded with unpublished books, plans, unsung songs and poems, projects, businesses and cures to rare ailments. Due to fear, people die without executing their plans. For once, just focus on yourself and do what is best for you. Don’t let your fears enslave you. Understand that courage is not the absence of fear, but is the realisation that there is something greater than fear.

The World Is Full Of Fear

People use fear as a control mechanism. Fears such as abuse, brutality, neglect, no- work-no-pay, failure, black mail, divorce, imprisonment, interrogation, death, rape, repossession, theft and rejection. If everyone is out there, doing it and achieving their dreams, then fear is not final.

Fear is only as deep as the mind allows. As long as you continue to push out to the world; as long as you continue to stretch your capabilities; as long as you continue to take new risks in making your dreams come true, you are going to experience fear. Not only are you going to experience fear whenever you are on unfamiliar territory, but so is everyone else. Pushing through fear is less frightening than living with the underlying fear that comes from a feeling of helplessness.

"If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory" - William Hazlet.
"Of all the people I have ever known, those who have pursued their dreams and failed have lived a much more fulfilling life than those who have put their dreams on a shelf for fear of failure" - Anonymous.

Research of The Week

Title: Developments in the provision of education in Swaziland: Challenges and opportunities.
Authors: Musa MA Dube, Nokuthula Vilakati, Thuli Mamba, Boyie Dlamini and Qandelihle GSN Simelane.
Email: madube@ uniswa.sz or qandelihle@googlemail.com

INTRODUCTION

The foundation of education in the country is documented in the philosophy, policies, and objectives of the Imbokodvo National Movement of 1969 (Imbokodvo National Movement, 1969). In line with the Imbokodvo National Movement Manifesto, the mandate of the colleges and UNISWA is to provide human resources based on the needs of development. However, there is an increasing concern as more graduates do not get absorbed into the formal employment sector (Marope, 2010, Zamberia et al, 2009).

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

Specifically, the study was conducted in order to:

i. Establish the current status of the different sectors of education in Swaziland.
ii. Analyse challenges and issues in the provision of secondary education, teacher education, technical and vocational education and training (TVET), and tertiary education.
iii. Assess the national and institutional capacities to provide ODL paying particular attention to policy, quality assurance, governance/organisational structures, management systems and materials, human and financial resources.

METHODOLOGY

The nature of the study called for the use of a combination of research methods, or simply mixed methods (Nafukho, 2010), ranging from desk research in which selected and relevant policies, strategic plans, and draft reports were reviewed.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

A. Challenges and issues in the provision of secondary education, teacher training, technical and vocation educa-tion and training: There is pressure within the education system resulting in high class repeats and dropouts. Most of the challenges are therefore centered on funding, personnel, infrastructure, poorly coordinated educational reforms, non-involvement and lack of participation of key stakeholders as well as cross-cutting issues like poverty and HIV/AIDS.
B. Access and quality: About 14 000 students dropout of the formal education system annually. To illustrate the challenge of access to education ‘limited’ by resource availability, at the William Pitcher Teacher Training College for instance, out of 5 100 applicants in 2010, only 150 could be admitted. In the case of Swaziland College of Technology (SCOT), approximately 21 per cent of a total of 2 272 applicants were admitted. Marope (2010) observed that like SCOT, UNISWA functions below its physical capacity (at 60 per cent), which she could only attribute to limitations by the unavailability of scholarships or funding.
C. The pre-service tertiary education policy: With a trans-formation in the costing of tertiary education to levels similar to those of institutions in the region, it seems possible to double the number of scholarships available, without expanding the scholarship budget in the same year. Student subsistence allowances for accommodation and meals are a critical cost driver, accounting for nearly 23 per cent of public spending. The new pre-service scholarship policy of 2011 proposes no payments for residence and transport which according to recent (2010/11) figures amounted to E9 000 p/a. Secondary education costs exceed E20 000 p/a in public schools and may be as high as E65 000 p/a, in private schools offering hostel services. School fees range between E5 000 and E10 000 per annum in public schools, rates that do not vary significantly if not widely from the E9 000 deficit that will arise from the change in the scholarship policy. It would, therefore, appear that scholarships are used as an incentive for learners to complete senior secondary school. However the repayment levels are very low, estimated at eight per cent.
D. Poorly coordinated educa-tional reforms: With regard to high school education as well as its articulation with other sectors and the cherished aspirations spelt out in the 1969 Manifesto of Imbokodvo National Movement and succeeding documents, the shift from GCE to IGSCE and IGSCE to SIGSCE is believed to have weakened the educational system. The curriculum is now more localised than it is global oriented, and the content is no longer satisfactory to both high school pupils and teacher trainees. Donors and sponsors of education, Tibiyo TakaNgwane for instance, who spends millions of Emalangeni each year on both secondary and tertiary education, shared the same view that local students can no longer compete internationally.
E. Cross-cutting issues: Poverty and hiv/aids: Projections of 120 000 OVCs by 2010 well exceeded and the OVCs (needing government funding) make up at least half the number of pupils in secondary education.
F. Challenges to the provi-sion of education via open and distance learning: There is generally no government policy on open distance education in Swaziland, and this is likely to have a negative impact on the development of ODL.
G. Enhancing access: The formal education system is poor in articulation, both vertically and horizontally, within and across subsectors. Courses provided by the IDE are not related to labour market demands, the national reform agenda or with regional dynamics.

Implications

The new scholarship policy or pre-service tertiary education of 2011 will require robust application of rules if it is to yield the benefits suggested in preceding sections. free primary education and the 2011 policy both represent initiatives for the expansion of the opportunities for access to education by those who need it. Lessons from elsewhere, e. g. Botswana, indicate that free education is both socially and economically unsustainable. Hence, Botswana has reverted to user fees. Fee paying at UNISWA may provide opportunity for better exploitation of the capacity of facilities, but it will also change the relationship between the University, and the students, there are lessons from the United Kingdom for instance where top up fees were introduced in recent years.

Be blessed!