Struggle to Keep Swaziland’s Primary Schools Free

By an IPS Correspondent Reprint | | Print |

MBABANE, Feb 18 2013 (IPS) - As the Swazi government struggles to guarantee a no-cost nationwide primary school system, it finds itself sparring against school principals over the question if it is a lack of funds or an abundance of corruption that is standing in the way of its success.

The Swazi government has asked principals of public primary schools to return an annual top-up fee that they have been charging pupils since the Free Primary Education Programme (FPEP) was introduced in 2009. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

Most recently, the government has asked principals of public primary schools to return an annual top-up fee they have been charging their pupils, without government authority, since the Free Primary Education Programme (FPEP) was introduced here in 2009.

It is a request that some principals have refused, saying it could bankrupt many schools in this southern African nation. One principal, who asked for anonymity, told IPS that it was not feasible to refund parents because the money had already been used to settle bills with suppliers. It is a view shared by the national principals association.

“We’ll run schools as the government wants us to and – if they collapse because of a lack of funds, it’s not our problem,” president of the Swaziland Principals Association (SWAPA), Mduzuzi Bhembe, told IPS. He added that principals were frustrated by the government’s attitude, but he remained noncommittal on when exactly they intend to refund parents.

Schools owe parents an undisclosed amount, estimated to be millions of emalangeni (10 emalangeni is about one dollar), for the annual top-up fees that most of the country’s 558 primary schools charge pupils.

While the additional fees vary from school to school, some parents pay up to 76 dollars per child annually. It is considered a huge sum, as 63 percent of Swazis live below the poverty line of two dollars a day.

Schools charge these fees in addition to the annual 62 dollars per child that the government pays for pupils in grades one to five. The government’s orphan and vulnerable children’s grant programme, in addition, pays schools a higher amount of 219 to 280 dollars for primary and high school children who have registered for it.

But principals argued that the money paid for the free primary programme did not meet their running costs. According to Minister of Education and Training Wilson Ntshangase, the money was sufficient to pay for stationery, textbooks, feeding schemes and teachers’ salaries.  His ministry is determined to get rid of the extra fees, he told IPS, as they make Swazi school dues exceptionally high.

Now, “There are many children who are idling at home even though the government has paid their fees, because they can’t afford the top-up fees,” Ntshangase told IPS. “Government heavily subsidises education, yet the cost of education in this country is escalating,” Dumisani Mnisi, Swaziland director for Save the Children, told IPS. She agreed that some schools were operating efficiently with the money that the government paid them.

Regina Masuku’s grandchildren attend one of the few primary schools in the country that does not charge top-up fees. “I’ve got nothing to complain about – except that they eat beans at school every day,” Masuku told IPS of the Mnyokane Primary School, in northeastern Swaziland.