Kids toil in dagga fields for school fees
MBABANE – Learners who dropped out of schools within the Lobamba Inkhundla are being used as cheap labour in dagga fields, where they hope to raise money to pay school fees.
This was unearthed during a process to take a register of all school dropouts within the inkhundla.
The process, aimed at providing assistance to the pupils, is spearheaded by Indvuna Yenkhundla Bhekisisa Bhembe.
He said preliminary findings were that 48 learners at Nkhanini were out of school.
Bhembe said they discovered that the cause for most dropouts was the fact that head teachers were demanding owed school fees for the previous academic year.
“We have just started the process of registering all the children who are not in class and the number is already high. We are still continuing to Ezabeni, Ezulwini, Elangeni and Buka and you may find out that the numbers will soar to over 200,” said Bhembe.
Employed
According to Bhembe, some of the parents had indicated that their children had been taken to northern Hhohho, where they were illegally employed in the dagga fields.
“The parents revealed that their children travelled long distances to be employed as cheap labour, even though they were underage. Their parents were also unemployed,” said Bhembe.
He wondered what the situation was in other constituencies and further called on government to do something to mitigate the impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the employment sector.
“We have been greatly affected by the pandemic and that is why many of our kids are out of school. I think government needs to do something,” he said.
He suggested that government should apply for financial support from Global Fund so that all the affected children
would go back to school to further their studies.
“We just want government to also consider getting funding from United Nations or other bodies to assist our children,” he said.
Bhembe further said head
teachers had contributed to the increased number of learners dropping out of school because they were demanding school fees for the previous academic years.
He said most of the learners ended up being forced to sit at home.
“Some parents told us that the head teachers denied owing children the right to proceed to the next grade, even if they passed, unless they paid the previously owed school fees,” he stated.
He then said head teachers were supposed to be called for an emergency meeting to resolve the crisis. He elucidated that there was no way that children could run away and not pay the school fees at a later stage.
“Head teachers must allow the children to continue with their academics. There is a huge gap between head teachers and parents,” he said.
Dropouts
Bhembe said some of the school dropouts were currently admitted to Emlalatini, even though it would not be easy for them to cope with the kind of education offered in that school.
According to Bhembe, parents whose children were illegally employed in dagga fields were willing to bring them back, only if money was available to pay for the school fees.
Furthermore, he said due to the number of school dropouts, there had been an increase in gangsterism and general crimes in the area. He said those who were not working in dagga fields were lazing around and engaging in illegal activities.
“Some have tattoos of prison gangs, yet they have never been to prison themselves. If nothing is done, they will be hard core criminals, who will terrorise the community,” he narrated.
Bhembe called for local companies to invest in the education of children at the Lobamba Constituency.
The Ministry of Labour and Social Security has adopted the Action Programme on Combating Worst Forms of Child Labour.
This is an initiative aimed at dealing with the employment of children.
Labour Commissioner Mthunzi Shabangu said the ministry had appointed a multi stakeholder Task Team that was chaired by the Principal Secretary, Makhosini Mndawe, in the ministry.
He said this initiative was aimed at driving the implementation of the action programme, through Legal Notice No.312 of 2022.