GOVT OPPOSES MPS’ RESOLUTION TO PAY OWED FEES

SIKHUPHE - No way!

This sums up government’s position regarding the motion which was passed in Parliament on Monday; especially the part where it says, the administration should urgently come up with a concise plan of action on how it will fund the fees owed by pupils, including examination fees. On Monday, Lobamba Lomdzala Member of Parliament (MP) Marwick Khumalo moved a motion in Parliament that the Minister of Education and Training, Lady Mabuza, should ensure that no pupil would be expelled from secondary and high school, temporarily or permanently, because of owing school fees, while government urgently came up with a concise plan of action on how it would fund the fees being owed by the pupils, including examination fees.

Motion

It also said the plan of action should also include how government would arrest this problem permanently. According to the motion, the plan should be tabled in the House of Assembly within four weeks after its adoption. The motion was seconded by Manzini South MP Thandi Nxumalo and it was eventually passed. This publication asked the Prime Minister (PM), Cleopas Dlamini, about the matter upon his arrival at the King Mswati III  International Airport from Equatorial Guinea, where he had represented the King. One of the questions posed to the PM was how would government address the matter because it was struggling to even pay allowances for students on time. In response, the PM said he was not aware of the matter, and he asked the Minister of Education and Training, Lady Mabuza, to assist him in responding to it.

Thereafter, the minister said, currently in secondary and high school, government was paying school fees for over 50 per cent of the pupils. She said this was because more than half of the pupils who were in secondary and high school in the country, were registered under the Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) Programme. “So, I do not think that government can go all the way and pay for the rest of the pupils because it is already paying school fees for OVCs, who constitute more than 50 per cent of the total enrolment in secondary and high school,” the minister said.

Programme

She said under this programme, the guardians of these pupils only paid top-up-fees, so that the leaners could have stationery, among other things. Thereafter, the PM said in other words, government would ensure that head teachers would not send OVCs home if the administration had not paid for them, but allow them into class, while they would be making means to pay for them. Later on, this publication interviewed the minister about the matter and she added that government also paid examination fees for the over 50 per cent pupils who were registered under the OVC programme. “There is no way government can extend its hand further than that,” the minister said.

Again, the minister said as a ministry, they had noted that head teachers were sending pupils home for owing school fees, which was something they should not be doing, because they did not have agreements with pupils, but the parents. She said head teachers were not supposed to touch pupils. She said a child’s responsibility was to learn, not to be involved in school fees collection. Worse still, she said head teachers were also sending home pupils registered under the OVC Programme. Mabuza said the ministry’s instruction to head teachers was clear, that they should have negotiations with parents. For example, she said they could come up with an agreement whereby the school fees would be paid in instalments across the year, than to expect parents to pay it all at once.

On another note, she said they had also noted that after the about two-year break due to COVID-19, where the ministry was not having direct and physical contact with head teachers, the latter seemed not to be taking instructions as expected. ‘Abasalaleli’, the minister said in vernacular. In that regard, she said as a ministry, they would soon be rolling out a programme of sending inspectors to check if schools, especially head teachers, were adhering to the instructions of not sending owing pupils back home. In fact, the minister said the exercise could start this week, or next week, the latest. Mabuza said they were also working on a programme to engage parents on the matter, because when their children were sent home, they called the ministry. It is worth noting that according to the Deputy Prime Minister’s (DPM’s) Office Annual Performance Report for 2021/22, there were 60 371 OVC beneficiaries and among them, 27 602 were registered to write the external examinations for Form III and Form V.

Increase

One observation that was made was that there was an increase in the number of beneficiaries, compared to last calendar year. It had increased from 58192 in 2020 to 60 371 in 2021 and it was said that the reason could be that a number of parents lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Again, the report reflected that for the 60 371 beneficiaries , it would cost government E122 380 900 per year, but at the time it was compiled, the administration had paid E34 195 219 and the balance was E88 405911.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: