Times Of Swaziland: SMOOTH OPENING OF SCHOOLS POSSIBLE?

SMOOTH OPENING OF SCHOOLS POSSIBLE?
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Thobeka Manyathela on 05/01/2025 05:56:00


If you sift through all the details about her academic achievements, her
promotion and the dismal performance of the school she was heading, Dr Ncamsile
Matsenjwa gives you an insight into why quality education remains a pipe dream
in Eswatini.
Of course, in the interview with our journalist for last Sunday’s edition, she
was talking about Sitsatsaweni Primary School, which was the worst performing in
Eswatini in the Grade VII external examinations, but the challenges she listed
affect many other schools. The school situated in the Lubombo region recorded
109 failures from an enrolment of 164 candidates. This means close to two thirds
of the pupils failed and are part of the total of 2 716 who failed the 2024
examination.
It is now a matter of record, that parents of the 2 716 learners face an
uncertain future as the curriculum they were studying has been phased out and a
new one, the Competency Based Education (CBE) begins this year. They cannot be
promoted to Form I because they failed the primary school leaving exam and no
secondary school would accept them. The Ministry of Education and Training
(MOET) has assured that the there is no other option but for the learners to
repeat Grade VII.  Arrangements are apparently being made for them to continue
with the old Outcome Based Education (OBE) curriculum and sit for the
examination again at the end of the year.
Preparedness
Apart from the conundrum of what would happen if some, God forbid, still fail,
there is the small matter of preparedness of each affected school. The schools
have to make room for the repeating pupils. How will this be possible? Will they
not need extra classrooms and additional teachers to guide these children
towards the examination later in the year? What about other resources? It is
unfortunate that this will now be one of the challenges parents, teachers and
learners have to deal with when schools open for the first term later this
month. The other problems have been there since time immemorial, with government
failing to properly address them. Where attempts have been made to address them,
the pace has been agonisingly slow.
As stated earlier, the other challenges are those listed by Dr Ncamsile Masilela
as reasons for her school to perform so badly in last year’s examination. The
former head teacher has not attributed this embarrassing outcome to managerial
or administrative issues within her school, leaving one to think that she and
her staff diligently worked hard to ensure that learners scored high marks, like
their peers in other schools. She said this poor performance was beyond her
school’s control. However, when she goes on to list them, one finds that they
are challenges that almost every other school in the country grapples with. Did
they not affect the other schools that performed better than hers?In any event,
my point was that the excuses she gives need to be taken seriously and addressed
by the relevant stakeholders, namely the MOET, Ministry of Public Service,
Ministry of Finance and Parliament.
Teachers
Among other things, Dr Masilela blames government’s hiring freeze, which
resulted in her former school losing several teachers who were never replaced.
She says Sitsatsaweni Primary had to make do with skeleton staff, with some
classes being taught by volunteers.  The issue of understaffing in schools is a
serious one that government promised to address by conducting an audit of the
staffing levels in each school countrywide, to determine which had more than
they needed and which ones had fewer. Dr Matsenjwa also attributed her former
school’s performance to the phasing out of the OBE curriculum. According to
her, about 90 learners who failed Grade VI at this school were promoted to Grade
VII where they were to write the external exam.
“They were not ready for the next level and their poor performance in Grade
VII reflected that,” she told our reporter. This has also been mentioned as
the reason some of the 2 716 who failed the exam nationally, were unable to make
it. Government should take full responsibility for this mess. We know that
schools have always recorded failures in external examinations, but this
year’s failure rate would not have been so high had this phase-out programme
not been in such disarray. Meanwhile, the Sitsatsaweni Primary former head
teacher also cited mental health issues on the part of teachers, saying some
would display signs of disorientation, with some standing outside classrooms and
shouting at invisible objects.
These teachers were frustrated by financial problems, with one said to have been
earning a net pay of E0.00 as a result of what the head teacher termed
‘government deductions.’
Challenges
I am here to urge Dr Matsenjwa’s colleagues at the ministry to take heed of
the challenges she has listed. As stated earlier, most public schools will
identify with these problems.
Staff shortages in our schools, for example, are a national issue. Minister for
Education Owen Nxumalo, told Eswatini Broadcasting and Information Services
(EBIS) listeners on Thursday evening, that staff shortages were among the issues
his office was prioritising. He even mentioned the fact that teachers were the
only civil service cohort where officers worked on contract basis.  The rest of
the civil service does not have temporary workers.
The minister promised that this would soon be a thing of the past, so that the
integrity of the teaching profession is maintained. He also promised that when
schools open on January 28, challenges usually reported would be minimal. These
include the employment of teachers, payment of OVC and Free Primary Education
(FPE) grants, as well as the delivery of food for the schools feeding programme.
While complaining about the failure of some heads of schools to submit the
necessary paperwork for OVC and FPE grants on time, and the reluctance of some
civil servants working on such budget items to work without being paid overtime,
Nxumalo was candid enough to admit where the ministry had failed.
Taking his word for it, we look forward to a better opening of schools for the
first term. Some of us do not like having to criticise government all the time,
but if there are no positives to give them credit for, what are we to do?