Times Of Swaziland: DEPLOY COPS, ARMY IN SCHOOLS - PAC

DEPLOY COPS, ARMY IN SCHOOLS - PAC
================================================================================
BY SIBONGILE SUKATI on 21/09/2021 08:48:00


LOBAMBA – The sight of soldiers and police officers in schools could be a
reality should government heed calls by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The PAC is of the view that security personnel should be deployed to maintain
peace and order in schools. This was said by the new Chairperson of the PAC, who
is also Gege Member of Parliament, Musa Kunene. He said there was a lot of
unrest in schools around the country, adding that opportunists were taking every
opportunity to use the pupils to spread the unrest (budlwangudlwangu). “We
would encourage that you continue to monitor the situation and if it calls for
you to use the police, then attend to these toyi-toyis with them,” said
Kunene. He said the country could not allow pupils to remain at home any longer
while the unrest continued.
Threat
Kunene said if there was any threat or chance of violence, then the Ministry of
Education and Training should approach either the army or the police to maintain
peace. In vernacular he said; “Ningaya masemasotjeni, ningaya
nasemaphoyiseni,” as he said the ministry could utilise the services of the
security forces.  He said some pupils were serious about learning and missed
school because they had been at home for a long time. MP Kunene said teachers
were merely civil servants and could not be expected to maintain the order under
these trying times. He said the ministry and as a collective government should
ensure that schools continued operating as there were some pupils who were so
behind they wanted to disrupt lessons for those who were keen to learn.
MP Kunene made the utterances yesterday during the sitting of the PAC, which was
deliberating the Auditor General’s (AG) Public Schools Audit Report for the
Financial Year ended December 31, 2018. The chairperson made these remarks after
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Training Bertram Stewart
had asked that he be excused from some of the future sittings of the committee
as there was a lot under the ministry which demanded his attention. He said
there would be two Motsa officers who would sit in for him as he would be away.
MP Kunene further said head teachers should try and ensure that security guards
were deployed in the schools every day of the week and provide 24-hour security.
He said the people who burnt the schools took the chance to do so once the
security guards had knocked off.
“As soon as they (security guards) leave, these people target the schools and
burn them so the controlling officer must continue to make sure that there is
safety because even the teachers will end up not going to school,” said
Kunene. In response, the PS said the unrest in schools was not even caused by
the late payment of free primary education (FPE) and orphaned and vulnerable
children (OVC) funds. He made an example of a woman who wanted out of a marriage
that no matter what talking to could be done, that person had already made up
her mind that she wanted to leave. He said the pupils found any excuse to
boycott classes.  “In another school, they boycotted because there were some
people who were arrested, including another pupil who tried to burn the
school,” said the PS.
Exams
He said the pupils said they would not attend school or even write exams until
the release of their colleague. He, however, expressed hope that order would be
restored because they were working with the police who were fully committed to
ensuring that schools returned back on track. The PS said the pupils’
grievances were neither here nor there, but they just wanted to cause
distraction.  He said government paid for FPE and OVCs and that parents paid
nothing, especially in primary school, which was why he wondered why parents
failed to reprimand their children. “Parents are failing to guard their
children and ask them where they are going at night and why they smell of
petrol,” the PS said. He said this was basic discipline of children and that
he grew up during an era where a child could not just go to the shops without
being sent by an adult.
Stewart said nowadays, children would hang around shops and when any person
tried to call them to order, the very parents would turn against the person
disciplining them and state that they were violating the child’s human rights.
“The challenge is with the parents as they have a responsibility to discipline
their children instead of sitting back while government pays for everything,”
he said. He said some of the parents were seemingly just content with giving
birth. “Parents also have a responsibility in what is happening,” he said.
MP Kunene said the ministry should make means of addressing both parents and
pupils about the importance of school and why they should not burn them.
Protests
He said pupils were gullible and sometimes participated in these protests and
sung of songs without knowing what they were doing. Meanwhile, other members of
the PAC, in particular Dvokodvweni MP Mduduzi Magagula, wanted to know if
government had already paid the OVC and FPE fees this year as some of the
schools were complaining that no payment had been made and they were struggling
to operate. He further asked if the shortage of teachers had been dealt with,
including how many had since been engaged by the ministry as some pupils went to
school to do nothing, which was why some of them resorted to the burning of
schools. The PS said the payments were ongoing, but there were some challenges
as some of the personal identity numbers (PIN) of the pupils did not tally.
He said they were dealing with such issues on a case-by-case basis as they were
filling the gaps. He said they were conducting a study which they hoped to
complete by the end of this month as some schools were over staffed while others
had deputy head teachers yet that was not supposed to be the case depending on
the school enrolment. He said in other schools, some head teachers no longer
conducted lessons yet this was not supposed to be the case. Stewart added that
the ministry, with the Teaching Service Commission, had a meeting with the prime
minister to remove the condition that they had to seek permission from Public
Service to replace a head teacher. The PS further noted that some teachers were
seemingly involved in inciting the pupils.
Mangcongco MP Oneboy Zikalala suggested that the pupils and teachers needed to
be re-orientated on teaching and learning as the break had been too long.