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SCHOOLS OPENING MESS

22/01/2019 01:28:00 BY PHIWASE PHUNGWAYO

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MBABANE – As schools open today for the 2019 academic year, head teachers are having a headache.

This is due to the fact that government has once again not released payment for free primary education (FPE).
Schools’ authorities have predicted that it will be a tough year due to government’s delay in paying the grants.

Mangwaneni Primary School Head teacher Jabulani Nkonyane confirmed that the most glaring challenge they were currently facing was that government had delayed payments of FPE grants.

“I was checking last year’s budget and looked into the school’s account, only to find that it stands at about E4 000. This is an issue because ideally, government would have paid for FPE by now,” lamented Nkonyane.

The head teacher mentioned that the school had submitted claim forms to government but no payments had been made yet.
Nkonyane expressed that this was a huge concern as they had not paid support staff (cooks and groundsmen) their dues.

Mater Dolorosa School Head teacher John Ngwenya last Friday lamented that the delay would deprive pupils of the opportunity to start classes, thereby leading to no progress in class.

Vulamehlo Primary School Deputy Cynthia Dlamini also stated that although they were ready for schools opening, the delay of payments posed a potential danger to the learning process as teachers, who had done a commendable job in producing good results, might be engaged in back-to-back meetings.
She said these meetings were platforms for teachers to plan on their proposed strikes and this affected the learning process.

Meanwhile, Eswatini Principals Association (EPA) President Welcome Mhlanga, when questioned about the possible challenges they would face as schools from the delays, said; “It is difficult to state these things as schools have not opened yet. This is a challenge because it will seem as though we are prophets of doom, predicting bad things to happen,” said Mhlanga.

Priorities

However, it is a known fact that many head teachers had been complaining about government’s skewed priorities when it comes to its spending. Some noted that funds for the education sector should have been well budgeted for to allow the smooth operation of schools.
“How are we expected to perform under the circumstances?” one head teacher asked.

The free primary education programme was introduced in 2009 as per the dictates of the Constitution of Eswatini.
The Ministry of Education and Training has provided all primary school pupils with free text and workbooks, stationery, school furniture, feeding programme and infrastructures as well as exercise books since the programme started.

Government pays E590 for each child per year in primary school.
In January 2017, head teachers and teachers alike dismissed a proposed new FPE grant of E995 and demanded a minimum of E1 600 per child at primary level.

Expenditure

The head teachers argued that the E1 600 was a minimum that would assist schools to cater for miscellaneous expenditure that was not allocated for in the FPE grants.
Worth noting was that the E995 was also rejected by Parliament.
It was formulated based on a report released by the ministry in August 2015. The ministry prepared a document titled the ‘proposed cost of primary and secondary education (2016-2030)’.

Leading to the document being rejected, the ministry had assembled a task team to bring to an end an impasse between it and head teachers. The task team was mandated to consult relevant stakeholders with a view to eliminate top-up fees.
Things turned for the worst in July last year when after having given a financial lifeline of about E140 million, covering a period of eight years, the European Union announced that it was now government’s responsibility to take care of the programme.
The decision by the EU to stop its funding under the Support to Education and Training (SET) Programme, was communicated to government.
Initially, the financial support was aimed at paying fees for all pupils until 2016.

After the initial period lapsed, the financial support was extended for a further two years, which is currently in its final year – 2018.
This publication reported early this year that government needs E151.9 million for 592 primary schools countrywide to which Minister of Education and Training Lady Mabuza said government was yet to discuss a way forward on how to fund the programme in the absence of the EU sponsorship.

This happens against the backdrop of government being on the verge of paying former politicians their ex-gratia amounting to over E55 million.
Unions and economists alike have blasted government’s priority spending, stating that money was being channelled to non-essential sectors such as the security forces and vanity projects, with total disregard of more pressing needs.