Times Of Swaziland: MPS’ MOTION ON FREE SECONDARY, HIGHER EDUCATION

MPS’ MOTION ON FREE SECONDARY, HIGHER EDUCATION
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Sabelo Majola on 22/05/2023 08:33:00


MBABANE – A motion that is calling for government to look into the possibility
of making secondary and higher education free in the country is expected to be
moved on Wednesday.
The motion has been highlighted in the notice paper that informs the order paper
prior to a sitting in the House of Assembly. The motion is expected to be moved
by Manzini North Member of Parliament (MP) Macford Sibandze and he will be
seconded by Kwaluseni MP Sibusiso Mabhanisi Dlamini. The legislators want the
Minister of Education and Training, Lady Mabuza, in consultation with Cabinet
and development partners, to look into the possibility of making secondary and
higher education free in the country as it was committed in the 1948 Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
Consultation
“To move that the Honourable Minister for Education and Training, in
consultation with Cabinet and development partners, look into the possibility of
making secondary and higher education free in the country, as it was committed
in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, reiterated in the Dakar
Framework for Action and now in the Sustainable Development Agenda. The
honourable minister should appraise the House on progress made on a quarterly
basis,” reads the motion as stated in the notice paper. One of the main
challenges, which formed part of the discussions during the portfolio committee
annual performance report presentations, in Parliament in March, was the high
percentage of Grade VII graduates.
The observation was brought to the fore during the Ministry of Education and
Training’s presentation, where MPs called for the reviewing of the free
primary education (FPE) programme, to determine whether it was helping the
country to maintain the initiative or not. This was because some of the
legislators felt the initiative was producing a lot of Grade VII graduates, yet
some guardians were failing to cater for the secondary tuition. At the time,
Sibandze highlighted that there was a motion in waiting which sought to
highlight a ‘free high school education is possible’ to the government. He
even highlighted that some officials from the Ministry of Education and Training
had already been engaged by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on
same.
Motion
Sibandze said what they had done as a country successfully was producing Grade
VII graduates through the FPE Programme.   “What we are doing now as a country
is producing Grade VII graduates and it could be legendary for the minister to
push for the motion to be passed,” he said. The seconder of the motion in
Kwaluseni MP Dlamini, at the time of the debate, calling for the review of the
FPE, suggested that tuition fees owed by the pupils for the year 2020/21 should
be written off, because at the time, the whole world was hit by the COVID-19
pandemic and a lot of people lost employment. Dlamini made an example, that in
his constituency, there were about 250 pupils who were home because they could
not afford to pay school fees at high school and what boggled the mind was that
head teachers were sending them back home, with the directive that they would
only be back in class once they paid school fees for the previous academic year.
He stated that some of the pupils owed as much as E25 000.
“We now have Grade VII graduates because parents can’t afford to pay for the
fees of the pupils at high school. These pupils now have anger boiling up in
them, owing to this situation and it is on that basis that we urge government to
review the FPE Programme because it is breeding a generation that is
disheartened and could haunt the country negatively in future,” he said at the
time. Another motion that is expected to be moved on Wednesday is in relation to
effecting a two per cent administrative charge on gaming operators, over and
above the 15 per cent gaming levy, in order for the Gaming Board of Control to
reduce reliance on the government for its day-to-day operations, and also
improve efficiency, as is the norm in similar bodies in the region and beyond.
The motion is expected to be moved by Lobamba Lomdzala MP Marwick Khumalo and
will be seconded by Ndzingeni MP Lutfo Dlamini. The legislators want to move
that the Minister for Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Moses Vilakati, should
consult the Minister for Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, with a view to effect the two
per cent administrative charge.