REVIEW EDUCATION POLICY

Sir,

Thank you for allowing me space in your widely read newspaper to voice out my concern on the state of education in the country. This great newspaper has been very informative when it comes to the performance of pupils in the different schools and went further to investigate why some of the performed dismally.

There have been interesting, funny and shocking reasons given by the schools, teachers and parents on why the pupils performed badly.  However, at times I ask myself if the government, through the Ministry of Education and Training does follow up on the stories or revelations published.

During our days, the highest education in Swaziland was Standard 9 or Form III in today’s language. That was around 1968 when the new education system was introduced. We were told that there was no need for a child to fail other classes especially those that were regarded as not important. A fail would be recorded in the critical classes. It was said that pupils were going to repeat certain classes once but never twice.

I understand that at the time the country was still introducing such laws so there was a lot that had to be considered.
Now, a lot has changed and I believe that it will do government no harm to review its education policies because the universal language being talked of now is that it is important to provide education for all. The time has come for government to consult with all relevant stakeholders and discuss if the Form Three class is still as important.

I know that if the stakeholders engage one another, a solution that would make the lives of Swazi children better would come out. The country did introduce the Free Primary Education a few years ago so it makes sense to consider what happens to most of its beneficiaries when they reach secondary level.

Making them fail in Form III when they had been taken care of by government in primary does not make sense. I am hoping that by the time the current Parliament goes home they would have discussed this issue at length.

Elliot Khanyile
Ezulwini

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