The Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) is expecting nothing less than E3.5 Billion budget for the Education sector.

This was revealed by the SNAT Secretary General Sikelela Dlamini in a statement that was released on Thursday, a day before the Finance Minister Budget Speech.

Outlining the Teachers Association’s expectations from the Budget Speech, the SNAT SG said the Ministry of Education and Training is expected to get the lion’s share of the budget which translate to 15% of the total budget as per the international benchmark.

However, Dlamini expressed that teachers expect that this should exclude salaries but should be directed to the procurement of educational resources and materials of all kinds.

“The SNAT expects a total budget of E3.5 billion (excluding personnel costs). This money will cater for free Education (FPE), Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC), Competency Based Education (CBE), Rolling out of Grade 0 in all schools (increasing from the current 80 schools), and construction of more school classrooms in line with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and National COVID-29 Regulations,” outlined Dlamini.  

He added that the E3.5 Billion can also help in funding Scholarships for tertiary students.

Dlamini also revealed that the teacher’s association is expecting the Finance Minister to set aside a budget of E2 Billion for the 2021\2022 Salary Review exercise.

He said the amount will be used to normalize the grievances such as normalizing the salary of school administrators and Head Of Departments in schools. He said it will also address house allowances, commuting allowances, the introduction of medical aid, and hardship allowance for all civil servants working in remote areas.  

Dlamini clarified that all these grievances were raised as recommendations during the previous salary review exercises but were not implemented as the government expressed a shortage of funds.

On another note, Dlamini said that the Health sector should not get a budget that is less than E3 Billion excluding salaries. He said this money can help to capacitate the health institutions in the country as well as the provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for Health Workers who have since become front line workers.

The SNAT SG also challenged the Finance Minister to clearly outline how the country can navigate itself out of the huge wage bill crises which has been an issue since 2013.

He said as SNAT, they are sick and tired of the Finance Ministers grumbling about huge wage bill.

“This time around, we are expecting a clear report in terms of how this issue will be addressed in the current year (2021) so that there could be enough resources that could be available to fund other equally important public services,” said Dlamini.

The SNAT SG also called for the suspension of capital projects that consume a lot of money from the public purse and yet do not bring direct benefit to individual Swazis.