Ministry of Education and Training can do better

Eyouth, who are at times part of society’s selective amnesia, were this week remembered and thrown a lifeline with three positive statements bringing a bit of hope.

The biggest of the three, in my humble view, being the announcement of the ‘continuous opening’ of loan applications for the Youth Enterprise Revolving Fund (YERF). Yes, open all year round, no (open, close). While the two other statements were about the appointment of a new YERF chief executive officer (CEO) and the last announcement being a clearer unpacking of how the fund works and what it had successfully achieved over the years.

It is safe to say, Eswatini is open for youth businesses again.

And at the same time there is a bit of pro-activity coming from the YERF offices. The coffee they are drinking, they must stick to.

For the youth’s sake.

For the countrys’ future’s sake. As a self-styled youth empowerment advocate, when something good happens on the youth front, I cannot help but highlight it because too few people share views on youth issues yet they are the majority of the population.

Back to the developments from YERF.

Such announcements, coming 10 months since I penned a feature that youth must be at the centre of every economic development initiative in 2022, are good news. The

SWATINI’S

Aall the challenges birthed by the recent-past pandemic and many other inherited pending challenges, it is only fair to note and appreciate all effort and amount of improvement ever since the taking over of the current Minister of Education and Training.

In fact, some people on the ground even attest and compliment her for being more hands on, very big on school visits especially where and when necessary and especially her general outlook.

A few months ago I penned an article touching on a number of issues concerning a few decisions made by the Ministry of Education and the general reaction from those who read it was mostly positive.

The reason for using ‘mostly’ is because some of those who got, agreed and could relate with the main points further expressed concerns and even fear on my behalf for possible repercussions of speaking up in our beautiful Kingdom of Eswatini.

Fear and repercussions for merely pointing out a few issues of

MIDST

announcements also come after I penned a ‘love letter’ to the Minister of Youth on this page pleading that during his term, at least three landmark youth related issues happen.

Only three that would leave a legacy for his term.

Not to suggest that the developments are related to my features but to suggest in every way that prayers from an honest heart are eventually answered one way or the other.

OPENING

It has been a frustrating time for many young people with worldclass business ideas to sit and wait to ‘watch this space’ for the periodic opening and closing of funding applications at the YERF.

Frustrating because the need to do business does not close. Dreams, albeit coming in our sleep, never rest. When you have an idea, you want to implement it now and strike the iron while it is still hot.

Just for background purposes, this parastatal is under the Ministry of Sports Culture and Youth Affairs. concern and even going to the extent of contributing tried and tested suggestions, really?

The saddest truth is that such expressions and commentary are usually and most of the time mistook for personal attack or assumed to be aimed at negatively affecting progress rather than being seen as constructive criticism and a positive contribution towards the betterment of certain things within the system.

Winston Churchill also adds that “criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body; it calls attention to the development of an unhealthy state of things. If it is heeded in time, danger may be averted; if it is suppressed, a fatal distemper may develop.”

Anyway, for those who might have missed it, the previous reflection

The main purpose of the fund, according to its website, is to promote youth employment and alleviate poverty among young people between the ages of 18 to 35 years old.

The mandate of the YERF includes to assist Eswatini youth to develop themselves economically.

The YERF therefore seeks to empower the youth to engage in economic and commercial enterprises, it is also meant to help in empowering the youth to be self-sustainable. So its resurgence is quite welcome.

The announcement that the loans will be available continuously came on Wednesday with this caption:” ‘Continuous Opening’ It’s official, we are finally open for applications.

Young entrepreneurs of Eswatini that require business finance are encouraged to take this opportunity and apply for funding,” on social media.

This statement came on the same week that they also announced the new CEO/fund manager and the other aforementioned statement was mainly on the worrisome alleged and deemed ‘normal’ when it comes to the chaotic reopening of schools at the beginning of the year, mainly due of the illtimed and somewhat unnecessary complex registration processes.

Based on my knowledge, experience and expertise, I then threw in a few suggestions that I strongly believed could be helpful in future to avoid such unnecessary complications, waste of academic or teaching time and especially having learners return to school when there is no teaching and very limited supervision in most the classrooms (because of some educators are also parents, who need to be available for their own children who might be registering elsewhere).

This week I would like to share a post that deeply touched and left me feeling all kind of ways. about what the since formation.

The YERF statement, which was in the form of an infographic, painted a picture that perhaps things are not as bad as they look from afar with regards to the fund.

Inforgraphics mind you are now the way to go to display information easily and quickly in a world where there is a constant fight for the attention of the public. Attention economy dynamics. Anyway the statement read as follows: “Youth Entrepreneurship is key for development.

The performance results from 2020-2022 evident the fact that youth entrepreneurship is making a significant contribution in the economic development of the country.

The performance shows a positive trend and steady growth in number of new business funded by YERF and number of direct jobs created.” fund

SHARED

had

ANNOUNCEMENTS

done

The number of jobs being in the 700 mark. Juxtaposing that with our neighbour South Africa whose Fund has created 10 000 in the past few years in a country with a much bigger population shows that we are perhaps on the road towards reaching the youth and supporting them, especially with the announcement of the continuous opening.

The new fund manager though also has to come up with more non financial and technical initiatives to help the youth become better payers of the loans.

News on Thursday that loan repayment rate was at 38 per cent was quite disturbing. This means the systems in place to follow up on the usage and performance of the business needs to be stricter.

We have seen some great models from the likes of FNB when they did a disbursement to the youth

It was authored by one lady I have seen a lot on social media promoting everything to do with embracing the technology era as well as being one of the wellknown pioneers of teaching coding in Eswatini.

This post came attached with a newspaper article titled ‘Coding, robotics for public schools on cards.’ In summary, the article quoted the Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Education Training Bheki Gama, who revealed how the ministry was planning to introduce coding and robotics at primary level in public schools.

According to the article, Gama disclosed such information after meeting with a South Korean NGO called The Right Hand and further shared that the Ministry of Education and Training would soon be launching a pilot robotics class with selected public schools. The coding lady from social media’s post read as follows:

“Two years ago a brown skinned liSwati proposed the same thing to MoET. (The) liSwati was told it was a good idea but consultations with consultants and cabinet approvals had to be accomplished first. ‘We will get back to you’, they said (nobody did).”

Now a South Korean NGO shows up to pitch the same idea, an announcement is made right after the meeting (laughing emojis).

I have learned to laugh about it. It is an African thing, (black people don’t trust their own) so and there were weekly report backs on the income and expenditures so that the recipients have their pulse on their cash flows.

Such models like this and others are shining and worthy to be explored on a national fund level to increase the repayment level.

Ultimately though the discussion of youth empowerment is not just about Eswatini but goes as a responsibility to everyone in the country including private sector.

What is also quite relieving is that at least there is an enabling policy on the ground in the form of the National Youth Policy to help such initiatives be more than just dreams.

In early August this year the National Youth Policy Operational Plan was launched and the Director of Youth Affairs Bheki Thwala was quoted heralding it as a key document to help young people realise their goals.

URGED

He said the policy outlines the steps to be taken at different levels of government departments, youth organisations, and the constituents in all parts of the country.

He then urged all young people to pay attention to this operational plan saying this is the plan which they would use as they attend to all issues of young people as governments and different institutions. The plan is downloadable online.

The year may almost be over but at least in terms of this sector, something positive has come out.

One wishes the new youth fund manager all the best as he tries to dish out the loans to applicants and for those who don’t qualify capacitate them until they do.

After all the socio-economic development of the country needs all hands on the deck, especially the youth.

many books have been written about black leaders failing to trust and empower their own people,

The greatest challenge for us African children pushing for change and innovation is convincing OUR OWN people that we are capable of doing what we want to achieve in our own communities.

(Lastly)thank you Ministry of Education and Training for the initiative (clapping hands emojis). Coding is a very important life skill and every child should learn how to think and solve problems, not just remember correct answers in the exam room and exit the school system with the hope of being employed somewhere.

STRATEGY

(Employers are ‘hiring’ robots and apps now) Let’s all go back to the drawing board and RE-THINK our strategy for life. In conclusion, please allow me to end with one of the comments to the above post that stood out for me: “People like Bongekile Shiba should be trending because their intellectual value is honoured and are well remunerated for it. My friends let’s make this happen. Some of you are leaders in the corporate space. Make decisions that empower people such as Bongekile. Her mind really is one of Eswatini’s assets. Let’s honour such people by creating enabling environment so that they succeed.” For more: mlando4u@gmail.com