THE GREAT ENGLISH DEBATE: IT’S A POLITICAL STRATEGY - SIBONGILE

MBABANE – The scrapping of English Language as a passing subject is government’s political strategy in response to teacher’s grievances.

This is the view of former President of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) Sibongile Mazibuko. Mazibuko said the move by government would lower the education standards of the country even further.  She said after seeing that government had not paid teachers the cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA) for the past three years, they decided to implement this policy so that they would be in the parents’ good books.

The Minister of Education and Training Lady Mabuza announced last year that English Language would no longer be a compulsory passing subject.  As a result of the policy, about 3 000 pupils who sat for both the 2019 Grade VII and Form III examinations passed even though they have failed English. Mazibuko said because teachers had engaged in a strike last year, government did not want to appear as if it had failed and therefore, decided to implement this policy to look good. Mazibuko said it was her opinion that government also wanted to downsize the number of teachers in the country. “English Language is taught across both primary and high school and if it is no longer a passing subject, I do not think government will see the need of hiring more English teachers,” said Mazibuko.

Downsizing

She added that there had always been talks of downsizing the civil service and this was one of government’s strategies to do so. She said it was a pity that the English Language was made a none-compulsory passing subject in public schools. “If you can trace where the politicians’ children study you will note that a majority of them all attend these private schools where English is a necessity,” she said. She said the children of senior government officials and Cabinet ministers all attended schools which had the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) syllabus which would then qualify them to apply and be admitted to foreign universities in the United Kingdom or the United States of America. “They take their children to private schools so that they are able to go overseas. What will happen to the ordinary liSwati child who will not even be able to qualify to enter into the local tertiary institutions?” wondered Mazibuko. She said government was just playing cheap politics at the expense of the emaSwati children and parents.

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