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KING EAGER TO SEE NGWANE TURNED INTO UNIVERSITY

14/10/2023 08:53:00 Joseph Zulu

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NHLANGANO – Following governments promise to expand the Ngwane College, His Majesty eagerly anticipates achieving this goal.

Yesterday, 570 teachers from Ngwane Teachers’ College graduated at a ceremony that was attended by His Majesty the King, foreign delegates among others. It is the first ceremony since the outbreak of COVID-19, which had made it impossible for such large gatherings to take place.
Speaking at the ceremony, the King said he was pleased to officiate at the graduation ceremony after a long period of absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He said COVID-19 had a significant impact on various activities, not just locally but internationally. Further, he welcomed guests who had travelled from outside the country to attend.

He expressed excitement that the college had produced 570 graduates, having produced 355 teachers in 2021 and 215 in 2022. He said of these, 411 hold primary teachers diploma while 159 had early childhood care education certificates. During the event, performers including lutsango, timbongi and warriors who performed before Their Majesties sang songs that had lyrics which encouraged that teachers should be hired.His Majesty got the message and smiled as they performed.

Recently, it had become a norm for the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) to take to the streets and protest due to the shortage of teachers in schools. The organisation, through its members, had complained that they were being overworked because of shortage of teachers. This publication had also written several stories, where some of the schools did not have enough teachers such that certain classes had not learnt for the whole year.

SNAT had also complained that there were many teachers who had graduated, but that they were not being hired and that instead, government only employed them as temporary teachers, year after year. In his message, the King said he had heard the message about the none hiring of teachers. He said that in the past there had been no hiring of teachers but assured that something positive would be done about it, much to the jubilation of the crowd.