Times Of Swaziland: FREEZE ON GOVT HIRING RAISES EDUCATION QUALITY CONCERNS

FREEZE ON GOVT HIRING RAISES EDUCATION QUALITY CONCERNS
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Phila  Sibiya on 19/05/2019 08:40:00


MBABANE - Will the temporary freezing of hiring in government be detrimental to
the quality of education in the country?
This is a concern which has been raised by some educators following that there
are a number of vacancies in schools and some have not been filled since the
first term. The government issued a circular for the temporary suspension of
recruitment on account of budgetary constraints.
Parents have raised concerns that their children, some of whom will sit for
external examinations in a few months, were not learning at their schools.
One such school is Swazi National High, which is based in Matsapha. The
school’s Deputy Head teacher, only identified as PS Dlamini, said they had
some departments which did not have teachers since the first term. He said the
school’s head teacher had been frequenting the Teaching Service Commission
(TSC) to find teachers to fill the vacancies in the school.
NEW REQUIRED TEACHERS
He added that the head teacher also reported during the school’s assembly on
Thursday that he had not been able to get the new required teachers.
The deputy said this was a nationwide concern, as some teachers were retiring;
some dying and others were leaving to work in other sectors. He said in his
school, they currently did not have two Science, one Mathematics and three
English teachers. He said only five teachers in the school were teaching
Religious Education, instead of the nine or 10 who are required.
He said since some of the teachers were supposed to teach classes which would
write external examinations, they had made a contingency plan to co-opt some of
those from internal classes to teach the pupils.
The deputy stated that this led to the pupils in the internal classes being
neglected, and this would cause serious problems in the future.
“How are we going to close the void that has been created?” he wondered.
Dlamini further said some
of the teachers ended up taking more periods than what they were supposed to
take, which would bring more challenges, as it put too much pressure on them.
Dlamini stated that the quality of education was being compromised because the
teachers would easily get tired, and not do their jobs to their best ability.
prepare for classes
He said besides teaching, teachers were supposed to mark scripts, and those had
also increased, and they also had to prepare for the classes.
“The workload is too much, we are really concerned as their supervisors,”
Dlamini said.
He said since the teachers had too much on their plates, they would suffer from
burnout, leading to them submitting more sick sheets.
He added that in coming up with their plan, the government could have identified
some sectors where hiring should not be suspended, which would include health
and education. Dlamini said government could have also come up with a time frame
on when recruitment in government could start again.
“The ministry of education, on the other hand, has told us not to conduct
lessons during weekends and when schools are closed, as the time allocated for
learning was adequate,” he said.
He further said in addition to that, government had not hired any teachers and
that some who were working on contract basis did not have their agreements
renewed.
Dlamini said the internal classes were far behind with their syllabuses, and
this would also cause future problems. His stance was supported by the Swaziland
National Association of Teachers (SNAT). The union’s Secretary General
Sikelela Dlamini said this was a serious problem to the quality of education and
the welfare of their members.
Sikelela said some pupils just wasted their parents’ money by going to school
and not learning, which had been the case since the first term. He said the
classes without teachers also affected learning pupils, as they would make
noise, and disturb everyone because they did not have anyone supervising them.
“This will have adverse effects on the pupils future because at the end of the
year, they would not have covered everything that they were supposed to
learn,” he said.
He further added that head teachers who were also their members were negatively
affected by government’s stance because it caused stress and compromised their
health and wellbeing.
half-cooked pupils
Sikelela argued that the shortage of teachers in schools would also compromise
the global competitiveness of the local education. He said the pupils would be
half cooked, and would not be able to compete with others. He further said the
TSC went against the circular and hired some teachers at the beginning of the
year, but the commission then stopped. He also added that it was really
concerning as not only hiring had been stopped, but contracts for those who had
been hired in previous years had not been renewed, bringing strain to the
country’s education system.
“I believe that if government has financial challenges, certain activities
that take place in the country could have been stopped, instead of freezing
hiring of teachers,” he said.
raised their concerns
Welcome Mhlanga of the Swaziland Principals Association (SWAPA) said their
members had also raised their concerns with them. Mhlanga, who is the Head
teacher at Hermain Gmeiner High School, said his school was also affected by the
shortage of teachers.
Mhlanga said they had resolved during a meeting that they would visit the
minister of education and training tomorrow to get answers on why hiring of
teachers had been stopped. Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Education and
Training Dr Sibongile Mtshali confirmed that there were many vacancies in
schools, which included head teachers, heads of department and teachers. She
said these vacancies were a result of various reasons, including retirement of
teachers.
She said the ministry was not just folding its arms and not doing anything about
the issue. Dr Mtshali said following the circular, a process was spelt out to
them. She explained that a ministry should write to the ministry of public
service, asking to recruit new staff members.
She said the ministry of public Service would then write to Cabinet about the
vacancies. Dr Mtshali said Cabinet would then consult with the Ministry of
Finance to see if there was any money available to pay the new recruits, and if
there were available funds, allow the ministry to recruit.
“We are doing something about the vacancies in school. This is because of the
fiscal challenges government is facing and we are not trying to spite
teachers,” she said.
Dr Mtshali said the government was facing economic challenges, and that was the
reason recruitment had been temporarily stopped.
She said the ministry had been trying to sort a mess which occurred when 2 196
teachers were recruited in January without the correct processes being followed.
“We thought that because it was schools and teachers were needed, it was okay
to recruit them without following procedure,” she said.
Dr Mtshali explained that the new teachers had not been paid their salaries
until April. She said the government had been working on paying the teachers and
they had all been successfully paid.
She said the problem was not limited to only their ministry, but all are
affected because of the country’s economic challenges.