ONLY 53 OUT OF 601 SCHOOLS SUBMIT FPE GRANT CLAIMS

MBABANE – The Minister for Education and Training, Owen Nxumalo, is disheartened and concerned.
Nxumalo is disappointed and concerned by the delay in the submissions of free primary education (FPE) grant requests by schools. The minister said this when sought to establish if everything was in order with regard to the opening of schools. Nxumalo said he was disheartened as only 53 schools had submitted claims for the FPE grant without any glitches.
He said by yesterday, only 7 per cent of the schools claims were ready to be paid, while many had been returned back to the schools for the head teachers to correct improperly compiled information.

Incompetence

“This pains me because when things go haywire, the ministry is then blamed for incompetence. I plead with head teachers to submit adequately-filled claims and on time so that we do not have challenges when schools open for 2025,” said Nxumalo. He said the ministry had from October 2024 sent out a call to head teachers to submit the claims. Nxumalo said as things stand, he would ensure that those who have already submitted their claims are paid early. It is worth noting that there are 601 primary schools, with 161 being located in the Hhohho Region, while 132 are in the Lubombo Region. In the Manzini Region, there are 168 primary schools, while there are 140 in the Shiselweni Region. Meanwhile, there are 277 high schools in total in the country, with 72 located in the Hhohho Region, while 66 are in the Lubombo Region.

There are also 74 high schools in the Manzini Region, while there are 65 in the Shiselweni Region. This brings the number of schools in the country to 878. On the other hand, the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM), Thuli Dladla, said applications for orphaned and vulnerable children’s (OVCs) grants were being submitted by head teachers. However, she said there were challenges as the head teachers were at instances submitting names of pupils which were not corresponding with the names of the pupils. Dladla did admit that there would be late submissions as the head teachers were also still admitting pupils into non-completing classes.  This, he said, delayed the vetting and submission of the claims to the Treasury Department under the Ministry of Finance. Dladla said some of the schools will be receiving their money in the upcoming days.  

Submitted

These schools, she said, were those that had submitted properly filled OVC grant claims. However, the DPM did not have the exact number of the schools as she was on an assignment outside the office. Meanwhile, Secretary General of the Swaziland Association of Schools Administrators (SASA) Gcina Thusi said in his understanding, head teachers started submitting the FPE grants claims in November 2024. “However, in December, we were informed that the claims were being returned to schools as they were advised to use a government portal to check each pupil’s personal identity number (PIN). This is when schools are closed and it is hard to locate them or their guardians,” Thusi said. He admitted that schools that had their FPE claims returned were delayed to return them properly filled to the ministry as they were still seeking to locate either their guardians or the learners. In such an instance, Thusi said head teachers were compelled to delete all the pupils whose PIN did not match their names in the government portal and apply later.  However, this, he said, frustrated the process. 

Another challenge he raised was that the head teachers needed properly functioning computers with access to Wi -Fi. This, he said, was not a reality for all schools and it also frustrated the process. Thusi also supposed that some head teachers were facing challenges in locating the chairpersons of the school committees as it was the festive season. He said the chairpersons were needed to approve the list when they had completed verifying that each learner’s name matched their PIN. Despite the aforementioned challenges, Thusi encouraged his counterparts to attend to the FPE grant lists and those for the OVCs to ensure that they hit the ground running when schools open for the 2025 calendar. Furthermore, Eswatini Principals Association (EPA) Secretary General (SG) Mduduzi Masilela said head teachers registered with his entity had submitted the claims.

Masilela said: “If there is anything head teachers are most concerned about, it is filing the FPE claims so that they are paid on time. They know the frustration any delays bring!”
The SG said the challenge with some of the claims could be that they were being returned to schools for correcting errors, which would then affect the progress of the submissions.
He was certain that EPA members had submitted claims and they were yet to receive queries from the ministry.

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