‘Teachers teach subjects they’re not qualified for’
MBABANE – Due to a shortage of Maths and Science teachers, some schools are forced to use educators who are qualified in other subjects.
A number of high schools have disclosed that since the beginning of the year, they do not have no Maths and Science teachers.
In an interview with this publication, the head teachers highlighted the challenges their schools faced as a result of the shortage of those teachers.
Among the affected schools is Mshengu High School which is situated in the Shiselweni Region. The school has not had Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics teachers since the beginning of the year.
According to the Head teacher, Kenneth Simelane, the pupils were taught by other teachers in the school, who are qualified to teach other subjects. He said he had been seeking the intervention of the ministry, through the regional education offices (REO) but had not been able to receive any assistance.
He said this had caused challenges for the other teachers as they were now overworked. Simelane said it had also negatively affected the pupils as they received no assistance in those subjects.
Shortage
“Since the beginning of the year, we have had a shortage of teachers, including those who teach Chemistry and Mathematics. As a result, the teachers who are present at the school are now overworked as they need to also do the job which would have been done by other teachers. We fear that this will cost the children as they will not do well in these subjects while the subjects are very important, especially for the future of these children,” he said.
Simelane said to ensure that the pupils studied, the school advised them to seek external assistance from their family members in order to ensure that they did well. He further expressed that he had concerns on how well the pupils would do in their exams as they had not learnt much in the affected subjects.
“We are most concerned because the children will be expected to write exams on these subjects,” he said.
Simelane said he had informed the REO about the matter and was told that they would be attending to it. He further said this was a problem, as the pupils were not getting the full package of the education which they were expected to receive.
“We have a shortage of teachers who teach these subjects while these subjects are very important. We have time and again communicated these issues to the ministry but have not been successful as they always tell us that teachers are more than enough,” he said. A source, who requested to remain anonymous, disclosed that this problem affected a number of schools. The source said these included Mthunzini High School and Msindazwe High School, which both did not have teachers for Mathematics and one for Sciences. According to the source, from the time the schools began operating, they did not have Maths and Science teachers and as a result, the pupils were not able to learn those subjects.
“I do not know what kind of graduates we are trying to produce. These subjects are crucial and would narrow the choices the children would have at university. We now know that we will be producing very little doctors, even if they wished to become doctors, as the pupils would have not been given the opportunity to study these subjects,” he said.
Intervene
He requested the Ministry of Education and Training to intervene and hire teachers who would teach Maths and Science subjects.
The President of Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), Mbongwa Dlamini, stated that the issue of hiring of teachers had been among their main focus as a union. He said this was because they had seen the need as most teachers were overworked due to teaching more pupils than they should be.
“The SNAT collective is intensely apprehensive about the dire shortage of teachers in schools in the country. This situation started many years ago but reached maximum intensity during the COVID-19 era.
“SNAT has been making clarion calls to government, the biggest employer and owner of the over 933 public schools (primary and secondary), to employ and place adequate educators in the various schools.
“Our calls have never been adhered to by the central government, which continuously cites cash liquidity problems. Our analysis, as educators, reveals that the problems engulfing our education system are multifaceted and, therefore, cannot be attributable to only the shortage of teachers in schools.
“But even if we were to zoom in on the foregoing problem, as we hereby do, we will realise that it has intricate parts which can never be overlooked,” he said.
Lobby
Dlamini further said to work on this issue, the ministry had to revoke Legal Notice No. 147 of 2009 in its entirety and lobby other government departments and ministries for the total withdrawal of Circular No. 3 of 2018 that froze the hiring of workers within the civil service.
He said he also thought the ministry needed to initiate the process of creating permanent and pensionable posts, so that teachers could be appropriately placed.
“All Degree teachers who are qualified to teach in secondary schools should be removed from primary schools where they are wrongly placed and be re-deployed to secondary schools. This should be the first step in the teacher employment process.
“All teachers must be employed and placed in schools which are in their home regions so that they work closer to their places of origin. This will minimise the myriad of problems that confront teachers. All the action points suggested in this position paper, together with those that will arise after discussions in this meeting, must be placed in an action plan document that has timelines attached to it,” he said.
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Training Bheki Gama stated that as a ministry, they were aware of the shortage of teachers who specialised mostly in Mathematics and Sciences. He said this was because the teachers were in demand and they sought greener pastures.
Gama said the ministry was looking into hiring the relevant teachers as they were needed.