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CHRISTIANITY EDUCATION WINS AS PARLIAMENT PASSES BUDGET

24/03/2017 03:14:00 BY SIBONGILE SUKATI

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LOBAMBA – It was victory for Christianity education on Wednesday night when Members of Parliament (MPs) burned the midnight oil as they only knocked off at 12:15am in a bid to ensure that the budget was passed.

Sure enough, a majority of the MPs stayed on late into the night and even engaged in a lengthy debate concerning the E20 million allocated for Christianity Education.

Tempers flared as the MPs who were against the implementation of the programme insisted that government was not ready to roll-out the programme while others, including the Minister of Education and Training, Phineas Magagula, insisted that government was more than ready.

The portfolio committee of the ministry, which is chaired by Hosea MP Thulani Masuku, had initially recommended that the E20 million be sent back to the Consolidated Fund as government was not ready to roll-out the programme, however, the vote that eventually won was that the money be released immediately so that the ministry could start working.

Manzini north MP Jan Sithole, wondered why government was saying that it was ready to implement the programme, particularly because the ministry had said it had 840 schools and so far only had 50 teachers for the subject.

He further highlighted that the textbooks were still being printed and mentioned that even the Exams Council of Swaziland had said it was not ready to set-up the exams for the subject. “You cannot start implementing a subject to be examined at the end of the year during the first term holidays, which is why I am saying that the state of readiness is highly questionable,” said Sithole.

Sithole said to force all learners to learn Christianity as the only religion was also the violation of the country’s Constitution.
Those against the programme also lamented the fact that this new policy was only announced in December last year, yet its implementation was being fast-tracked against the rules of how the curriculum in changed in the education system.