BY MBONO MDLULI
LOBAMBA – Minister for Education and Training Owen Nxumalo is springing to action, with an intention of eradicating the crisis at the University of Eswatini (UNESWA).
Minister Nxumalo’s first step towards working on this problem is to set up a committee that will investigate the problems of engulfing the tertiary institution. The committee, according to Nxumalo, will consist of academics, who understand the operations of organisations such as UNESWA.
Nxumalo said this today during the 2023/24 performance debate of the Ministry of Education and Training, which took place in the House of Assembly. About 20 Members of Parliament (MPs) complained to the Minister about the problems engulfing the education sector in the country.
The UNESWA crisis was the centre of the debate among the MPs, who told the Minister that the problems needed to be sorted now. The MPs made it clear that UNESWA was one of the pillars of education in the country. Therefore, it needed to be sorted out, as education was one of the basis for the country’s development. About 20 MPs debated the matter and took three hours, instead of the allocated two hours.
Nxumalo said if things went according to plan, the committee would start working on the matter on from this week and they would be given three weeks to work on the matter. The committee would be able to come up with findings and recommendations that the Ministry would work on to sort out the crisis. Nxumalo said the committee would also work with a Cabinet sub-committee that would oversee what would be done by the committee Nxumalo was talking about.
Addressing other issues within the Ministry, Nxumalo said he was in talks with Minister for Labour and Social Security Phila Buthelezi on the issue of delayed allowances. This was because the MPs also complained about the delayed allowances, causing students to complain to them as MPs. Nxumalo said the delayed allowances were a problem to him to, as the complaints also reached him as an MP for Manzini South.
Nxumalo told the MPs that on top of that, there was another committee that would be set up to look into all of the problems engulfing the education sector of the country. He said this committee consisted of academics and business people who would look at issues such as the relevance of the free primary education (FPE), Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) funds and many other issues in the education sector.
The Minister also told the MP that this committee would also look into the expulsion of pupils over owed school fees. Nxumalo said it was not allowed for head teachers to expel pupils from schools and if they wanted to do something, they had to consult with the Ministry of Education first. He said it was unfortunate that some head teachers ran public schools as if they were their personal properties and that would not be allowed. The Minister said this was done in line with the mandate they got from Sibaya by the King and the entire nation.
