HIGH COST OF EDUCATION: PARENTS WANT URGENT GOVT INTERVENTION

MBABANE – The high cost of education is forcing thousands of children to drop out of school.

This is according to concerns raised by some head teachers who asked not to be mentioned for ethical reasons.
The head teachers raised the concerns following an announcement by the Ministry of Finance that members of the public should submit suggestions towards the budget. Following, this some of the head teachers suggested that the government should add more funds into education with the aim of alleviating the burden of the high cost of education from parents.

Eswatini News also spoke to some parents who, speaking on condition of anonymity revealed how due to the high cost of education, they were being forced to remove their children from some schools due to the high cost but that this came at a cost of sacrificing quality education. Despite taking their children to rural schools, they said the situation was the same as the rural schools did not have some of the educational materials and that they still had to pay for this.This, according to some parents resulted in some pupils dropping out of school.

The parents said they were failing to cope with the increasing cost of education as many of them were unemployed, or were single parents and that their salaries remained stagnant. Even some civil servants, who also complained of the same said their salaries had not been reviewed since 2016 and that they were not able to keep up with the high cost of paying for school fees and at the same time buy educational necessities for their children.

According to some head teachers, one would be of the view that education was affordable in government schools, particularly those in rural areas. However, they said this was not the case as the cost of sending their children to school was increasing, by at least 10 per cent to about 15 per cent. This is far higher than the average salary increases according to some head teachers.

A Head teacher who asked not to be mentioned stated that rural schools charged between E3 200 to about E5 000 per year. He said other schools charged higher such as about E7 000 while some were charging over E15 000.
“These are all public schools,” said the Head teacher.

He said as a result, some parents were forced to limit their children to specific schools because of the cost. However, he said even in rural schools, despite the fees being low, the cost of sending a child to school increased annually.
The Head teacher said this was because schools sometimes added other costs that affected children whose parents could not afford.*Juba, who is also a Head teacher stated that in some instances, pupils are charged book rentals and that this increased annually.

Afford

He said the reason these increased was because schools in rural areas acquired the books on credit as many children were not able to afford them cash. He said as a reason, the book suppliers charged exorbitantly. Juba said this resulted in the pupils paying more each year. It means that each year, the cost increases by 10 per cent or even more.
Juba further revealed that other costs were as a result of uniforms which also increased in costs. He said some pupils struggled to buy new uniforms and became embarrassed to return to school. “They end up growing dagga and never return to school,” said Juba.

Another parent, *Mangi said it was not just school fees or uniforms that were expensive but even other costs such as transport and food. She said these were also getting expensive. She revealed that her daughter attends high school at one of the schools in the Hhohho Region but because the school was far from her home, she was forced to use a hostel, outside the school. Mangi revealed that the hostel cost about E1 650 and that her daughter is only provided with breakfast and supper.

Mangi also added that there were other costs that her daughter incurred such as other monthly expenses outside school basic needs. She said this figure did not include toiletries or occasional medical expenses. Cyprian Dlamini, the Chairperson of Eswatini Schools Committee and Parents Association (ESCAPA) said the situation was getting worse for parents. He said education was getting costly not just in rural schools but even in urban areas.

He said the challenge for Eswatini was that the allocation of funds for education was small in comparison to other countries. Giving an example with the neighbouring South Africa (SA), Dlamini stated that the allocation of funds for education under the national budget included wages for teachers as well as maintenance of the schools yet in SA, this was not the case.

Giving an example, he said when one compared the budget allocation of education with a country like South Africa, the allocation there was about 15 per cent while Eswatini was allocated 17 per cent. He said as a result, one would think Eswatini was allocated more money but that this included teachers’ wages.

Dlamini said one of the solutions would be for the government to engage the parents when making major decisions. He said it appeared that for now, most of the decisions that were made by the government did not involve the people. He said as a result, even when the government had a good initiative, this was received with hostility. Responding to concerns by the parents that they were usually not consulted, the Minister of Education and Training, Owen Nxumalo stated that it was important to engage the parents since they were stakeholders.  He said there was a need to engage each other as stakeholders.

Noteworthy, the Minister recently met the National Executive Committee (NEC) of SNAT in Mbabane when they held talks for about two hours. The details of the meeting were not revealed as though this publication had reported that some of the issues include the situation of the SNAT President Mbongwa Dlamini, who was dismissed by the Teaching Services Commission (TSC) after he was found to have abstained from performing his duties.

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