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GOVT SAYS NO TO EARLY CLOSURE OF SCHOOLS

02/12/2022 09:32:00 Sibusiso Zwane

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MANZINI – Some schools are racing against time to ‘close’ before December 13, 2022.

According the 2022 academic calendar, schools are supposed to close for the second term (end of year) on December 22, 2022, but due to the threats brought about those who wish to support the incarcerated Members of Parliament (MPs) during their court appearance on December 13, some institutions are considering closing early. The proposed protest action’s main purpose is to escalate the call for the release of the two MPs, who are behind bars.

The MPs are Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza from Hosea Constituency and Mthandeni Dube of Ngwempisi Inkhundla. According to sources within the education sector, they learnt from previous protests that during such actions, public transport workers did not report for duty and the protesters frequently clashed with members of the State security organs. The sources said when public transport workers did not report for duty in the previous protest actions, some pupils and teachers were stranded, as there was no transport. They added that some found themselves in dangerous situations, where protesters had clashed with members of the State security organs, who either fired tear gas canisters or rubber bullets.

Risk

In that regard, they said in order to avoid putting the pupils and educators’ lives at risk; some of them had internal discussions in their various schools over the matter. He said one of the viable solutions was that they should push internal examinations to earlier dates so that by December 13, 2022, the pupils would have long finished writing and would be allowed to stay at home, while educators marked their scripts and compiled their report cards, either at home or at school, depending on the situation. As such, the insiders said most schools were already writing their internal examinations and some of them would finish around December 7, 2022. However, they highlighted that some would finish closer to December 13, 2022.

Swaziland Association of Schools Administrators (SASA) Secretary General (SG), Siphasha Dlamini, said there was no uniform decision taken regarding the matter. However, she mentioned that some schools started their examinations ahead of schedule and usually, they allowed pupils to stay at home after finishing their end of year examinations and gave them a date to come with their parents to collect their report cards. “What previous experience has taught us is public knowledge,” the SASA secretary general said.

Lucky

Again, she said they believed that some schools were lucky because they had planned that the dates for internal end of year examinations would be early so that teachers could have ample time to mark the scripts and compile the report cards. She said at that time, they did not know about the planned protest action or when the incarcerated MPs case would go back to court. “We believe there was divine intervention to those schools,” Dlamini said.

On the same note, the Eswatini Principals Association (EPA) Secretary General, Mduduzi Masilela, said they would be meeting the Ministry of Education and Training on Monday, and the issue of reviewing the current academic calendar would be one of the items on the agenda. “Before the planned protest action was announced, we had considered that we should engage the ministry regarding reviewing the academic calendar. At that time, the main reason was that there is the Incwala Ceremony, which is preceded by the Little Incwala and cutting of the lusekane (sacred plant), where young boys and men participate,”

Masilela said. However, he mentioned that there were safety concerns, given what transpired in the past. In that regard, he said during their meeting with the ministry, they would discuss how they could proactively respond to the situation. Masilela added that in as much as timelines of schools’ calendar were the responsibility of the ministry, schools planned on strategies internally, regarding same.

On the other hand, the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Education and Training, Bhekithemba Gama, says no one has the right to close schools besides the ministry. “The ministry will decide what happens,” he said. He added that the date of schools’ closure would remain the same (December 22, 2022), unless the ministry decided otherwise.