LUFAFA-Principal Secretary (PS) Nanikie Mnisi has urged pupils, teachers and parents at two Hhohho primary schools to stay calm despite the infrastructural crisis currently affecting their learning environment.
Mnisi heads the Ministry of Education and Training. The two schools Lufafa and Gobolondlo Primary fall under Ntfonjeni Inkhundla and share a combined enrolment of close to 800 pupils.
Both schools are battling severe infrastructural shortfalls. These include a lack of teacher housing, administrative offices, laboratories and unsafe usable toilets for pupils.
Poor condition
At Lufafa Primary, some teachers still live in structures built from stick and mud. The houses are in poor condition with crumbling plaster exposed brick and a single cracked window. Its narrow doorway opens into a dim interior offering little more than basic shelter from the elements.
Only two semi-detached modern houses have been built at the school recently through support from the Rural Development Fund (RDF).
The conditions were confirmed by constituency headman Mandla Magagula and Councillor Celani Dlamini. Their account follows a visit by the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) to assess staff and pupil welfare at Lufafa Primary.
The association’s findings included a stick and mud structure being used as both an agriculture laboratory and a staffroom for teachers.
Toilets
At neighbouring Gobolondlo Primary, the toilets present an even more urgent hazard. Some of the toilets are built from corrugated iron sheeting now rusted through and buckling at the base.
Moreover, the structure’s foundation is cracked and crumbling exposing a dark pit beneath. Several stalls stand without doors leaving pupils without privacy.
A second toilet block built from brick fares little better. Its walls show signs of collapse and the surrounding area is overgrown with grass and weeds with no visible maintenance in recent years.
Magagula said the toilets have become so unsafe that some pupils now avoid using them altogether choosing instead to relieve themselves elsewhere on the school grounds.
He said the danger prompted a parents meeting this week to discuss how to address what he called a serious health and safety risk.
Therefore, he has called on the ministry to prioritise visits to rural schools saying many face similar conditions that affect both staff welfare and the quality of education pupils receive.
Assured
Responding, Mnisi said the ministry regularly conducts site visits to rural schools countrywide. She noted that both Lufafa and Gobolondlo were visited last year by a team of inspectors led by Chief Inspector for Primary Schools Dr Thamie Mduduzi Dlamini.
The PS assured affected pupils teachers and parents that the ministry is engaging relevant stakeholders to resolve the issues and has not forgotten their situation.
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