PROPER ALLOCATION WELCOME

One of the major failings of the previous government was the misguided allocation of the country’s financial and human resources.

It is, therefore, incumbent upon the government of the day to correct this shortcoming by ensuring that the needs of this country are prioritised accordingly and national resources allocated deservedly.

News that the Ministry of Education will be hiring over 2 000 teachers to address the critical shortage of personnel in schools is the most welcome and we hope these are the first steps towards the proper allocation of national resources. It is high time the teacher-pupil ratios are addressed in order to derive the quality education that our children deserve.

Brick by brick, our education has crumbled before our eyes while government prioritised the recruitment of security forces whose contribution to the economy beyond docile, is yet to be justified.

Eswatini is among the biggest spenders on security as a percentage to the national budget in Southern Africa in sharp contrast to the injection required for education, health and agriculture which have been subjected to steady declines in budget allocations.

Affording our children basic primary education is a huge milestone in our 50 years of independence but the poor allocation of resources towards this sector has left our schools in desperate need of proper learning facilities, furniture, staff, stationery and feeding schemes.

The under-funding of our education has kept the number of primary schools disproportionate to secondary and high schools by almost half. Thousand of pupils find themselves without places to progress to a higher level and most never get a chance to complete their schooling.

Those who do still face the challenges of accessing tertiary education. Seeing our people sleeping on the streets just to get study permits for their children to pursue education elsewhere, is a pain we cannot bear any longer. We deserve to have more universities in this country to meet the growing demand.

It is in education that this peaceful country will realise the economic development aspired in the National Vision and it is a well educated society that can drive each sector to deliver on its full potential. We trust that the new government strategy will adopt proper planning and budget allocation that will rebuild the schools and subsequently this country and its people.

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