BY MBONGENI NDLELA
LOBAMBA – Government has heard outcries from stakeholders on the need to make changes to the country’s education system to make it competitive and relevant to the current times.
Having phased out the O Level General Certificate of Education and introduced the Eswatini General Certificate of Secondary Education (EGCSE), government has again reformed the secondary education system.
Finance Minister Neal Rijkenberg said in the 2022 academic, government is planning to introduce a qualification beyond EGCSE.
The EGCSE will now be completed in four years instead of the current five years and then introduce A (Advanced) Level qualification in the fifth year.
Rijkenberg said this programme is aimed at improving the entry requirement at university level education.
“In other countries like Zimbabwe and Ghana the entry requirement at university is the A-level. However, in our country, it is still the EGCSE. This programme will introduce the 4 years of EGCSE at 28 identified schools in the country commencing in 2022 and rolled out to other schools in subsequent years. Upon completion of the four years, the first batch of students will then proceed to the A-Level. This programme will provide a range of disciplines beyond science, including business studies and humanities. Government has allocated an additional E30 million towards the e-Learning programme,” the minister said.
He also stated that the audit for right-sizing the teaching service in all public schools regarding school quotas had been done and that 761 teachers were being re-deployed.
“The main objective of the exercise is to ensure that schools are manned by the appropriate staff in terms of numbers and qualifications,” he said.
