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CHRISTIANITY ONLY IN SCHOOLS TO BE CHALLENGED

14/09/2020 07:29:00 BY NTOMBI MHLONGO

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MBABANE - If the words of Matsanjeni North MP Phila Buthelezi are anything to go by, the once controversial ‘Kholwane Declaration’ will be challenged in Parliament.
The infamous declaration is the one that made it compulsory for pupils to be taught strictly Christian education in schools.

The move to teach strictly Christian religion in Eswatini schools was announced by the late former Prime Minister, Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini, in December 2016 and it became known as the ‘Kholwane Declaration’ as the decision was made at an area known as Kholwane.

The declaration meant that pupils would no longer be taught using any other religious book except for the Holy Bible.
This declaration by the late former PM is set to be challenged in Parliament.

Syllabus

Previously, the Religious Education syllabus consisted of topics on Christianity, Islam, Baha’i faith and Eswatini ancestors.
Schools opened in January 2017 for the new academic year under the new government orders to teach only Christianity, a move which was criticised by opponents as fuelling intolerance of Muslims and other religions that are practised in the country.

MP Buthelezi made it known during a sitting last Thursday, where the Ministry of Education and Training appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that a motion would be moved in Parliament soon.

This was when the PAC queried the warehousing of school books at the Macmillan Education premises.
He was speaking in relation to the auditor general’s report where it was revealed that a sum of E615 896.70 was paid to Macmillan Education in the financial year ended March 2018, for 1 451 textbooks that were not delivered.

Report

It was stated in the report that there was also no signed delivery note and proof of receipt for the books.
According to the AG’s report, a response given by the controlling officer of the ministry at the time was that for a long time, government had purchased and kept learning material at Macmillan Education premises.

Regarding the money, the AG’s report stated that the controlling officer said the payment was in line with the distribution agreement that government had with Macmillan, which stipulated that all stock purchased by the ministry belonged to government.

The controlling officer, according to the report, had also stated that the stock was checked, signed for and recorded at the ministry’s warehouse.
A recommendation given by the AG, as contained in the report, was that the controlling officer should revisit and normalise the agreement between government and Macmillan Education.
Also recommended was that the arrangement regarding the warehouse needed to be revisited and be run by an officer from the ministry.

Company

During the sitting last Thursday, Principal Secretary (PS) Bertram Stewart was asked to shed light on why the warehousing was done by the very same company government purchased school books from.
In response, he stated that it was something that was done by government consciously since it owned shares there.

“In the agreement, the warehousing of books is the responsibility of Macmillan unless we review it,” he said.
The PS informed the PAC that so far the ministry had not received any reports of a shortage of books and that all procedures were followed whenever they were delivered.

“We have tried to ensure that the receiving of books is done properly,” he said.
However, his response seemingly did not convince Buthelezi, who mentioned that shortages were there and caused by the fact that government gave the responsibility of storing the stock to the same entity it purchased the books from.

Buthelezi said during an audit, it was discovered that what appeared on the inventory was not available at the warehouse.
Following this, the outspoken MP, who is also the deputy speaker in the House of Assembly, lamented that the previous government made a mess.

“By making Christian education compulsory it is much against the Constitution. The previous government announced that even if one is Islam they will have to learn Christianity and this is wrong. As a matter of fact, a motion is coming to challenge that. The Constitution is clear that you cannot force a person to learn Christianity,” he said.

He then recalled how there were reported shortages of Religious Education textbooks which disrupted the operations of schools in the country.
“The issue will be brought back when we move the motion because it is wrong to take a person who is a Buddhist and force them to learn the Holy Bible. The subject you removed taught all religions. It gave children an idea of how it is done in the Baha’i culture. By the same token, it gave them an idea of what ancestral spirits (emadloti) mean to emaSwati,” he mentioned.

Emadloti

He said it was not good that today’s children had no idea what emadloti were all about.
“Do not get rid of those books, that issue is coming back. Our children need to be aware of all religions and not be forced to stick with the Bible all the time. Yes, while we were young we had to learn the Bible and be asked about Genesis and it was frustrating. Yes, we are a Christian nation but we also have to respect the Constitution,” he emphasised.

It should be noted that when the issue of the implementation of the policy was debated in Parliament in 2017, tempers flared as most MPs at the time were against it.
This took place during a budget debate where MPs worked as late as 12:15am to ensure that about E20 million, which had been allocated for the new syllabus, was not passed.

Implementation

The MPs who were against the implementation of the programme, insisted that government was not ready to roll out the programme while others, including the then Minister of Education and Training, Phineas Magagula, insisted that government was more than ready.

The then portfolio committee of the ministry, which was chaired by former Hosea MP Thulani Masuku, had initially recommended that the E20 million be sent back to the Consolidated Fund as government was not ready to roll-out the programme, however, the vote that eventually won was that the money be released immediately so that the ministry could start working.

One of the concerns raised at the time was that government kept saying it was ready yet the ministry had said it had 840 schools and at the time only had 50 teachers for the subject.

It should be noted that a year after the Christian Education was introduced in schools, some of them came out to allege that they had not received the much needed textbooks and other material. As expected, critics strongly condemned the decision by government as they argued that the Constitution of 2005 provided citizens with freedom of choice and religion.

Section 23 (1) of the Constitution reads, “A person has a right to freedom of thought, conscience or religion.”

Subsection (2) reads: “A religious community is entitled to establish and maintain places of education and to manage any place of education which that community wholly maintains, and that community may not be prevented from providing religious instructions for persons of that community in the course of education provided at a place of education which that community wholly maintains or in the course of any education which that community otherwise provides.”