UNQUALIFIED EMABUTFO HIRED AS TEACHERS - MP

LOBAMBA – Another day another blunder by the Ministry of Education and Training.

The latest one is that the ministry, through the Teaching Service Commission (TSC), has been accused of authorising the posting of unqualified teachers who are referred to as ‘Emabutfo’ in rural schools.
It is alleged that most of the implicated candidates did not perform well in Form V as they did not obtain the number of credits required for one to even teach at a primary school. The issue was raised by Deputy Speaker Esther Dlamini in the House of Assembly during the portfolio committee debate of the ministry, which took place on Wednesday.

When making her submission, Dlamini said she had been sent by concerned teachers to request the minister, Phineas Magagula, to conduct an investigation after it was discovered that there were more candidates who were undeservedly joining the profession under the tag of ‘Emabutfo’. “The information I have received is that the teachers are posted to the rural areas where no one can question if they are eligible and that the office of the TSC knows about the issue,” Dlamini said in Parliament.

She went on and submitted that the candidates were said to have been seconded at an office in Nkhanini, which she said she did not know about. “This needs to be investigated because these people are teaching our children wrong information,” she said.
Even before she could finish her submission, some MPs were already standing up one by one to request that she elaborates on what she was taking about. With most of them looking shocked, they asked her to explain what she meant by referring to the unqualified teachers as ‘Emabutfo’, so that even the minister would understand and respond to the allegations.

She mentioned that they were referred to as ‘Emabutfo’ and emphasised that they did not have the qualifications to teach but all were said to have received the letters from Nkhanini to get posting letters from the TSC office.
After her explanation, the MPs demanded an answer from the minister, if he knew anything about the issue. However, since it was not yet the official time for him to respond, he stood up and told MPs that he had many serious issues on his plate and that he was not going to stand up to respond to just one. After all submissions had been made and it was the official time for him to respond, the minister requested the MPs to allow him to go and consult on the allegations.
This newspaper reliably gathered that the issue was raised during a meeting for head teachers and deputies that took place at Sydney Williams Primary in Manzini last week Thursday, where it was said that rural schools were slowly becoming a dumping site.

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