10 TEACHERS PULL OUT OF MARKING

MBABANE – The Examinations Council of Eswatini (ECESWA) had to call teachers who were on standby as some of the initially approved teachers pulled out before the commencement of the marking of external examinations.

The external examination scripts marked by the teachers are the Grade VII final examinations, known as the Eswatini Primary Certificate (EPC), Form III - Junior Certificate and the Swaziland General Certificate of Secondary Education (SGCSE), normally referred to as Form V. A source said about 10 teachers pulled out in the last minute and the council had to call the teachers who were on standby to bridge the gap. The marking of the Form V exams has been completed and marking of the EPC and Form III exams commenced this past Monday.

Confirmed

ECESWA Registrar Dr Edmund Mazibuko confirmed that some of the teachers who were approved for marking pulled out prior to the commencement of the marking but he stated that it was not due to political reasons. Even though he didn’t confirm the number as revealed by the source, he stated that the teachers pulled out prior to the marking of the exams. “The teachers cited personal reasons for pulling out and some of them cited health reasons and our option was to call teachers on standby and rope them in for the marking of the exams,” he said. Mazibuko highlighted that the pulling out of the teachers didn’t have any effect on the marking as it started off well on Monday and with the prompt response from the standby teachers, all was going well.

Teachers had earlier called on their colleagues, who usually make extra money by marking the external examination scripts, to boycott the marking of the external exams. Annually, ECESWA calls upon teachers to register for marking the external examinations. Reports stated that the teachers made the call for the boycotting of the marking of the external examinations given that they were demanding that government pay them a 7.85 per cent cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA). This battle between government and civil servants is not new as the same transpired last year at this time of the year.

Eye-to-eye

The employer and employee are not seeing eye-to-eye in that government is offering zero per cent despite the latter’s demand which has not been adhered to in the last three years.
Instead, government has extended a provisional three per cent CoLA that can only come to effect at the beginning of the next financial year, April 2020. However, Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) Secretary General Sikelela Dlamini stated that it was not their call to have the teachers pulling out as they encourage their members to seize the opportunity of making extra money in marking the external examinations.

Quizzed

When quizzed on when the nation could expect the EPC results, Mazibuko stated that it was too early to say as the marking had just commenced and he asserted that the council would give updates on that.
The EPC results usually come out before Christmas over the years and that is a couple of weeks from now. The Form V results are the last ones to come out and usually, they are out early in the new year.

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