SCHOOLS NOT OPENING THIS MONTH - EDUCATION MINISTRY

MBABANE – Schools won’t be opening anytime soon, at least not in January.

This is the message that was conveyed by the Ministry of Education and Training when updating the nation on the opening of schools. Parents have been in suspense and waiting eagerly for an update on the reopening of schools, particularly because there was a sense of doubt on whether to purchase uniforms for pupils or to wait for the ministry to give an official communiqué on the matter. Conveying the message during a press conference that was held at the ministry’s headquarters yesterday, Minister Lady Mabuza said the ministry noted with concern the rapid increase in both COVID-19 cases and related deaths as reported by the Ministry of Health and they were quite alarming. Mabuza said they had noted that this unfortunate situation coincided with the reopening of the school academic year of 2021.

Delayed

“The nation is aware that schools usually reopen on the third week of January. However, due to the hike in COVID-19 cases over the past two months, the reopening might be delayed. We will keep the nation abreast on the proposed reopening dates of schools in due course as we continue to monitor the situation on the ground,” she said. The update comes after weeks of speculation as the ministry has been mum on the matter so much so that even head teachers told this publication this past Sunday that they were in the dark on the reopening of schools, through Eswatini Principals Association President Welcome Dlamini.

Dlamini further outlined eight demands for government to meet prior to the reopening of schools in the association’s end-of-year executive statement. One of the demands was that government should provide personal protective equipment (PPE) as in the past year; schools struggled to procure the PPE because of budgetary constraints, as most parents did not honour their school fees obligations. They also demanded that schools should be reopened when parents and government had committed to payment of school fees and PPE had been made available for learners and school staff.

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