NO MORE PERMITS FOR SWAZIS TO STUDY IN SA PUBLIC SCHOOLS

MBABANE – It is now official, the honeymoon for Swazi pupils who were enjoying the cheap education offered in neighbouring South Africa is over.

This comes after the South African High Commission made it clear that it would no longer grant study permits to locals enrolled in South African public schools. The only ones who will continue to be granted study permits are those enrolled in private schools where they have to pay the fees from their own pockets.

For many years, hundreds of Swazis skipped to the neighbouring country for school to enjoy the cheap education fees in that country at high school level.
In some public schools in SA, each pupil pays a meagre E100 for the whole year whereas in Swaziland, depending on the school, the fees can go as high as E7 000.
Last week, things changed as the high commission officials turned back hundreds of Swazi pupils and made it clear that they were not going to be granted the much required permits.

Information gathered was that the pupils were asked when they arrived at the entry points if they were enrolled in private or public schools and further informed that no permits would be issued for those enrolled in the latter.

The latest developments are obviously a big blow to the pupils as this means that they might be forced to spend the rest of the year sitting at home.
Interestingly, the pupils were allowed to go through the whole process of applying for the permits which included submitting important documents but were never informed that at the end, their applications would not be approved if they were going to public schools.

Some of the affected pupils said what the high commission had done was not fair as they felt that they should have been informed when they visited the office to take the application forms.

“I am shocked by this because I have been queuing for over two weeks at the South African High Commission and no one told us that we will not get the permits. If they had told us earlier, maybe my parents would have found other options,” one of the pupils said.

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