Free education does not guarantee a literate society

Sir,

 I’m one of those who follow the Just Thinking column and I agree with your assertion that the motives for those aspiring to be our legislators have changed drastically. You talk about people who are well versed with what goes on in Parliament and who can read and research.

Well welcome to Swazi politics. What with the likes of Make Lomasontfo Dludlu from Dlangeni who have graced our walls of power in the past? If you want children to take education seriously, then you should raise the standards. I’m talking about people recruited into our armed forces and those who are appointed by the authorities of the land.

 This is not a topic to be taken lightly as this opens a can of worms I tell you. I’m not sure where one would have to start to try and clean up the system that is operating here. On the other hand be careful lest you be accused of discriminating against those who were not fortunate enough, unlike you and me, to go to school. I wonder if you are aware that there are still people in this country who can’t even write their own names. They put a cross where they are supposed to sign and are required to use their fingerprints for identification purposes.

This is embarrassing in this day and age. I’m not talking about those who are receiving pension (imali yabogogo nabo mkhulu) but people who are below the age of 20. What do you have to say to that? This country has not taken serious steps to eradicate illiteracy. Making education free for the primary going children doesn’t guarantee that all children will be at school, due to various challenges.

These could include the unavailability of a school close by as some of these children are too young to walk long distances on their own. If they have to take a bus, they can’t because there is no money. Then you have the challenges of some places that have no bridges and thus not safe for the children to cross those flooded rivers during our rainy season. Then we have the case of children being stolen, raped and murdered. This is a real challenge for parents. I wonder what the solution will be. Unfortunately we seem to misuse the available funds by making sure that those who have more is given to them at the expense of our poor population.

Talking about that, I’m shocked that the Parliamentarians will continue to receive salaries when they are not serving the nation in any way. Not to mention the fact that we were told that they were given a gift of over E30 000 (umphako). In addition to that, the coffers are being drained by ministers who are still in office. To what end? They continue to milk our country dry and we can do nothing about it as we were never asked if we agreed even though we are the taxpayers. I rest my case Mr Editor.

From a Troubled Taxpayer

Troubled Taxpayer,

You have raised pertinent issues with regard to the standard of education and I agree with you that there are challenges faced by children who should be benefitting from the free primary education programme but aren’t. However, the importance of education cannot be overemphasised since there are jobs in society that require different levels of education and experience and Parliament is certainly one of those. 
It is also important to note that we should not set people up to fail or leave the country worse off simply because they do not understand what they are legislating, which will be the case if all you have is a basic level of education.

Editor

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