I was disappointed on Friday when I read that some head teachers of public schools order more books than they need, so that they can resell the excess ones to private schools.

This came to the fore when Shiselweni Regional Education Officer (REO) Siboniso Gumbi met head teachers from his region.

Gumbi said the excess books remained in the head teachers’ offices or storerooms without being utilised. As a result, the Ministry of Education and Training has instructed head teachers to stop ordering more books than they need.

The new directive is that any head teacher who is found to have ordered more than 10 excess books would pay for them.

Inspectors will be deployed to schools to investigate this matter.

This practice is apparently prevalent in primary schools, as they get most of their stationery from government because their learners benefit from the Free Primary Education (FPE) programme.

According to the REO, some of the excess books ordered from government and paid for by the taxpayer end up being sold to private schools.

Private schools purchase their own books and other stationery from Macmillan Publishers and other sources. Other items on the agenda at Thursday’s meeting in Nhlangano included the controversial Competence-Based Education (CBE), which is replacing the Outcome-Based Education (OBE) system in the country’s schools.

However, I was particularly drawn to the clear corruption involving books being sold to private schools. In this syndicate, both public and private school teachers are equally culpable and should be identified and disciplined. 

I was upset because all week long, I had been following reports on operations of the Ministry of Education. We have had several stories from this ministry in the last couple of weeks and most of them are disturbing.

It had been my intention to direct a few questions to the ministry, in particular and Cabinet in general, regarding the state of the country’s education.

I was on the side of head teachers and other educators who are getting the short end of the stick from government as their employer.

Imagine my disappointment then when I read that the head teachers, or some of them, may not be as clean themselves?

They are always vocal in calling government out on unfulfilled promises regarding FPE grants, the schools feeding programme, Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) grant and the timely delivery of stationery.

We, as parents, empathise with them and worry about the quality of education offered by public schools when the ministry seems to lack direction.

One issue that keeps cropping up is that of Grade 0, which was introduced recently as part of the Early Childhood Care, Development and Education (ECCDE) programme.

This programme was a good idea meant to ensure that children get a solid start at the foundational stage of their education.

However, as a result of the Ministry of Education’s failure to ensure that everything is in place, including infrastructure and properly trained teachers, it has become a nightmare for both educators and parents alike. In such circumstances, the learners are obviously affected as well.

Eswatini News reported last Saturday that some teachers deployed for this grade have not been paid salaries for months.

The Ministry of Education’s first quarter performance report acknowledged these challenges. The report was tabled in Parliament a week ago.

It painted a picture of a completely disjointed ECCDE programme, with the department itself at headquarters being understaffed. It was said that several officers had either retired or left for other endeavours, without being replaced.

Sadly, the ministry also acknowledged that Grade 0 teachers were not receiving salaries on a regular basis, like other workers.

There seems to be an impasse here, with the ministry expecting teachers to pay fees for their children in Grade 0, while the parents believe that government should bear that responsibility.

The parents’ argument is based on the fact that constitutionally, primary education in Eswatini is free. It is another matter that most schools require that parents add top-up fees every year, which are sometimes higher than the amount government pays for each child. We have traversed that road before and will talk about it again some other day because it has been a thorn in the parents’ flesh since 2009, when the FPE was introduced to fulfil provisions of Section 29 of the Constitution.

Subsection 29 (6) of the supreme law reads: “Every Swati child shall within three years of the commencement of this Constitution have the right to free education in public schools at least up to the end of primary school, beginning with the first grade.” As I have said above, today my focus is on the ECCDE programme, which is in such a shambles that it would have been better if its introduction had been postponed.

Teachers and parents would not be suffering so much if this project had been put on hold until everything was in place.

In one school I know, parents pay E1 800 per year for each child in Grade 0.

They are required to pay E600 per term, while their other children in Grade I and above enjoy free education, the top-up fees notwithstanding.

That said, the same quarterly report revealed that 80 public schools had received early learning materials this year.

The schools are spread across the four administrative regions of the kingdom.

At least 34 centres were visited by inspectors to assess the quality of education and adherence to teaching standards.

It has also been disclosed that a majority of the teachers expected to advance the ECCDE programme are not qualified, which means government has not facilitated their training.

For one, 80 schools are just not enough in a country with about 600 primary schools. Secondly, what `quality’ and `adherence to teaching standards’ are the inspectors assessing when schools have no classrooms and other infrastructure, teachers are demotivated because they are not paid and learning material is not enough? This is all so disappointing.

The public health system has practically collapsed and most operations of the Ministry of Education are in disarray.

Is there any ministry among the 18, that is adequately fulfilling the mandate for which it was established? We are eager for positive news and want to report it but those in leadership make it difficult for us to find such stories.

Bird’s eye view: Select criminals only, please…

We hope this letter eventually gets to emaSwati on the outside.

We worry that it might be intercepted along the way. Smuggling things, including letters, from jail is never easy.

We will get straight to the point because even the ‘26’ and ‘28’ gang members might get upset at seeing us with pen and paper.

We just want to appreciate the final adoption of the ‘nkwe’ philosophy by our caring government. With pills and medicine unavailable in clinics and hospitals for months, we just thought they had simply discarded the ‘nkwe’  approach and, had returned to the old, “there is no hurry in Eswatini” saying.

Well, President Donald Trump has only been in office for about half a year, but already, our government is fully cooperating with his desire for people to not only confine their vacations to America but visit other countries as well. That is the ‘nkwe’  spirit we want.

At least five such people, from the same number of countries, have been sent to Eswatini, catching all of us by surprise. Government’s shock at the reaction of emaSwati to the news is understandable.

They have always known us as a nation that loves foreigners. We blush and smile from ear to ear whenever foreigners visit our service points. The courtesy starts from the border posts, to filling stations and supermarkets. Anyway, the five gentlemen who arrived in the kingdom by plane on Wednesday have been described as ‘uniquely barbaric.’

We do not know what that means.

What we know is that they are serving long sentences for crimes that they will be staying at one of our Correctional facilities.

Well, having appreciated our government’s swift action in saving the people of America from violent barbarians, we just wish to make one humble plea.

Next time, when they decide to send criminals down here, they should pick them from First World countries. There is a lot we could learn from First World criminals, if Hollywood movies are anything to go by. They hijack cars, trains and aeroplanes.

They steal cash from banks as if taking candy from a little girl. We will try and engage the five visitors who got here last week, but we do not think there is anything much we will glean from them.

We already have our own rapists and murderers in here – and they do not enjoy any respect even from fellow inmates. Here, we only admire fraudsters like ‘bo Facata’ and bank tellers who make off with millions of Emalangeni, only to return home empty-handed.

The ‘facata’ gang is actually more alluring because it always seems to be two steps ahead of the police. Arresting one is like planting him or her on fertile ground. Ten new ones appear almost immediately. We doubt that criminals from countries like Libya, Yemen, Vietnam and Jamaica impart any new skills we might need.

As for Jamaica, we only knew it as a reggae-crazy nation and were shocked to learn that they have their very own hardcore criminals. Do not even make us start talking about Laos.

We do not even know which continent among the seven in the world this country is on.

We actually did not know such a country existed, until a uniquely barbarian man from there was generously given to us by the United States.

That is why it is our hope that next time, we are going to get criminals from developed countries like the United States itself, the United Kingdom, Germany, France or maybe even Japan.

We know there will be a ‘next time’ and we just can’t wait.