BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – Minister for Education and Training Owen Nxumalo and his officials is meeting Members of Parliament (MPs) who are members of the portfolio committee of the Ministry of Education and Training.
The meeting comes in a form of a workshop, which is currently taking place at Pigg’s Peak Hotel and the workshop is expected to end this coming Friday, having started yesterday (April 3, 2024). The aim of the workshop is to orient the MPs on the work done by the Ministry.
Minister Nxumalo confirmed that the meeting has started today and would end this coming Friday. He said his Ministry felt the orientation of the MPs was important so that they could know the policies of the Ministries and seek guidance from the Legislators.
Nxumalo said the Legislators were better placed to guide them on the policies they took. The MPs, according to Nxumalo, were on the ground in constituencies, where Emaswati lived. So they would be able to tell the Minister how to solve some of the challenges faced by the Ministry.
The Minister said one of the issues was that the Ministry wanted pregnant girls to be allowed to attend classes and write examination in school. He said previously, pregnant girls were not allowed to attend classes in schools. The Minister said MPs agreed that the pregnant girls had to be allowed in schools, but they Legislators pointed out that it could take some time for this policy to be implemented, as some head teachers were still warming up to that idea in schools. Some issues to be discussed during the workshop include milestones and challenges faced by the Ministry on school feeding, free primary education (FPE), national school enrolment and drop-out rate, secondary education, positive discipline, among other issues.
