With the country preparing for the re-opening of schools for the 2021 calendar in a safe manner, the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) has suggested that parents should not be made to pay the outstanding school fees of 2020 but, the government must pay outstanding fees for Free Primary Education and OVCsfor both 2020 and 2021.

The Association expressed this in a statement that was issued by the association’s Secretary General Sikelela Dlamini on Thursday.

Dlamini revealed that the teacher’s association National Executive Committee (NEC) held a consultative meeting with the Ministry of Education where they presented finding from a survey that they had conducted.

He said the survey was aimed at determining the state of the country’s preparedness towards the re-opening of schools.

Dlamini said their study revealed that the majority of schools in the country are not ready for the re-opening of schools as they do not have sufficient facilities, services, and infrastructure that is needed to combat the spread of the virus.

Another issue that emerged from the SNAT survey was the lack of teachers in some schools. Dlamini revealed that there are 200 vacant posts in the schools that they had visited.

He said the posts were as a result of retirements, deaths, promotions as well as expiring of contracts for some teachers. Dlamini reiterated that government should engage the teachers before the opening of schools and they have since requested the Ministry of Education to push the issue and not wait for schools to open before hiring teachers.

Lastly, Dlamini said they had requested that the Ministry of Education consider including teachers during the first phase of the vaccine roll-out. He said, when schools open, teachers will automatically become front-line workers due to the nature of schools gathering hence the call for prioritizing the vaccination of teachers alongside health workers.  

To help schools prepare for the opening of schools, Dlamini revealed that the teachers association has suggested that the government must pay all outstanding fees for the 2020 and 2021 school calendar for Orphans and Venerable Children (OVC), and Free Primary Education.  

Moreover, he revealed that the government should not make parents pay outstanding fees for 2020 since they had already paid deposits before the lockdown.  

“Parents should only pay fees for the current year (2021). The reason why the government has to pay fees even for the last year (2020) is that in essence, education as a public good is supposed to be state-funded, accessible, and be of high quality. This could be the best way by the government, of assisting the nation,” added Dlamini.