By EPN Reporter
MBABANE – Government has set aside E65 million for the conversion of temporary teachers to permanent teachers.
This amount of money has been set aside to be used during the 2024/25 financial year and it will convert 1,000 temporary teachers to become permanent. This was said by Minister for Public Service Mabulala Maseko yesterday when he visited schools around Mbabane together with Minister for Natural Resources and Energy Prince Lonkhokhela.
Since Cabinet ministers started visiting school from last week, one of the thorny issues that have been raised by school administrators was the shortage of techers in schools. The administrators stated that they had difficulties in running their schools with a limited number of teachers.
The minister understood that the shortage of teachers was a problem and government was doing something about it. “The issue of temporary teachers is a thorn in our education system, hence we started a good exercise in the present 2023/24 financial year to convert temporary teachers to become permanent ones,” Maseko said.
He said during the current financial year, the Government had been able to convert 1,000 teachers to occupy permanent posts. The minister added that his ministry, in conjunction with other ministries, continued with the exercise and an amount of E65 million had been set aside to cater for the exercise.
Maseko said the conversion of the teachers was going to be helpful to them because it would enable them to have access to certain privileges. The minister mentioned that the teachers could be able to have access to loans, a privilege they could not enjoy when they were still employed on a temporary basis.
Having access to loans for the teachers, according to the minister, would enable them to embark on huge projects like building their homes. This was something they could not be able to do when they were still temporary, according to the minister. The minister also said the Government was working to ensure that the problem of lack of teachers was a thing of the past.
