WHAT’S WRONG WITH EDUCATION MINISTRY?

WHEN ministers are appointed, I always wish that a person qualified in a certain field be appointed as a minister of that field. My wish is always based on the assumption that the person understands the department he or she will be overseeing. He or she knows the problems, successes and tricks of the filed he or she is qualified in. I say this because this is only an assumption and it had failed before. Who would forget the problem of the Judiciary?

The same thing happened with the Ministry of Education. I had hoped that the education system had found the right person who is experienced in the field, but it seems this is not the case. We have an ongoing debate on the banishment of corporal punishment in schools. This is not something introduced recently but the incumbent minister with his ministry should have known that stakeholders must be consulted before this was implemented. Teachers are protesting that they were not engaged before positive discipline was introduced at schools.

This now plays itself like the teachers are sabotaging the introduction of positive discipline and parents are coming out to say corporal punishment should continue at schools which is an indication that they were not consulted when corporal punishment was banned in schools. Children were not prepared or trained for positive discipline and this manifests in the way they are now behaving. Children go as far as saying they are failing because they are not beaten.
The declaration that only Christianity will be taught at our schools was also dropped onto the people of Swaziland without consultation. That school administrators were to get teachers themselves and make sure that there is a teacher to teach this subject in schools was a problem. Those schools had to find ways of making sure that this subject is taught and this is now a problem. I am yet to see if we will not have this challenged.

The ongoing debate in Parliament on the teaching of Christianity leaves me more worried. Who was consulted when this policy was introduced? That the parliamentarians are not supporting the policy reveals that they were not aware of it. If they were consulted, why are we not told that they are now changing positions? I think this is something affecting the whole country and the representatives of the people ought to have been consulted before it was implemented. A huge amount of money is to be allocated for a decision that was taken by only a few people without consulting those who will implement it and those to receive it. Congratulations to the parliamentarians for not approving this amount. I say so with caution because our parliamentarians change colours like chameleons.

As if that was not enough, there was the declaration of teaching in vernacular in schools to a certain level. This may be something from UNESCO, but I do not think that UNESCO forced our country into it. Our country agreed to it and signed, I therefore think and believe that the nation should have been consulted or at least told of this not in the manner it was done. It may be a good thing but the way it was introduced to the people should have been proper because it comes with shock if it is imposed without proper introduction to the stakeholders.

What then greatly shocked me and left me wondering what was happening in this ministry was the confrontation of the chairperson of the portfolio committee and the principal secretary in the Ministry of Education. That the principal secretary demanded to know why the chairperson was exposing the ministry makes me wonder if there are things that should not be revealed. Is it not the duty of the elected Members of Parliament to raise such things? I think it is their duty to question the actions of the ministry if they are not happy on its performance. This behaviour of the principal secretary had me thinking whether the reason why our parliamentarians are not questioning and acting in certain instances it’s because they are intimidated somehow. Where is the principal secretary getting the power to threaten a parliamentarian in Parliament?

A coincidence is that the minister of Education is in most instances present when the policies are announced to the public. I wonder if it is a coincidence that most of the policies are pronounced by the prime minister. This to me raises suspicion that the minister is just following what the prime minister has decided. But I have respect for the minister who is experienced when it comes to education. However, why is the minister as someone knowledgeable on education allowing such things to happen under his watch? What advice is he getting from officials of this ministry on such issues than a principal secretary who loses his cool during debates? Is it the system that is failing our ministers or it is themselves who do not stand for what they know and believe? Time will tell.
 

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