7 months without head teacher at Luhlangotsini
MBABANE – A head teacher plays a very important role in as far as running of the school is concerned. However, Luhlangotsini Primary School has not had a head teacher since June 2023. This is because the former head teacher had reached retirement age and has not been replaced since her retirement last year. The school is literally crumbling according to some of the parents, who spoke on condition of anonymity, adding that this resulted in failure to access the much needed funds to run the school. They said this had even affected the Free Primary Education (FPE) programme.
FPE is provided to primary schools to ensure that every child has an opportunity to attend school. Through same, parents are compelled to ensure that they send their children to school.
Luhlangotsini Primary School is situated about 10 kilometres away from Pigg’s Peak town in the northern Hhohho. Luhlangotsini area, where the school is situated is also one of the communities under Pigg’s Peak Inkhundla. There are about 280 children enrolled at the school, who are mainly from the nearby communities. Due to not having a head teacher, the school is not able to carry out important activities, such as paying suppliers, workers or buying some commodities, including additional food for the school’s Zondle feeding scheme. Also, the school is not able to withdraw money from its bank account because doing so requires both the signature of the head teacher, as well as that of the chairperson.
As a result, the school is not able to purchase important items, such as some extra stationary or get the school cleaned properly. Also, it was gathered that they are not able to pay suppliers. This is said to have resulted in the school asking parents to buy items for their children, including items that government had paid for. Also, orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) are said to be most affected, as they depended on the funding from government, yet the school is not able to access this.
Lungile Gama, the chairperson of the school’s committee confirmed that there was currently no head teacher at the institutions. She said under normal circumstances, only herself and a head teacher were supposed to sign for funds to be released. “The regulations do not allow me to do it alone,” she stated.
Gama said it was for this reason that every activity which required funding had stalled. She said the school was not able to carry out major activities as they did not have access to funds. Further, Gama stated that since the school was not providing food due to lack of money, children had been asked to carry their own to school. However, she said this was a problem because some of the children came from disadvantaged families or were orphaned. “It is sad to see one child eating while another did not have anything,” she said.
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Gama also revealed that the committee was following up on the issue of replacing the retired head teacher and that it had been reported to the school’s grantee. Luhlangotsini Primary School is one of the learning institutions under The Lutheran Church. Lutheran schools grantees, Mpendulo Mdziniso also confirmed that there was no head teacher at the school. However, he said interviews had already been done as per process of hiring a head teacher.
He revealed that the former head teacher had retired and that a vacancy was advertised with the Teaching Services Commission (TSC) as per requirement. Mdziniso said interested people applied for the position and that interviews were done.
Mdziniso said the school indicated which candidates they were interested in and that this was conveyed to the TSC. The grantee was also asked how the school was able to function without a head teacher. He said so far, the school had a deputy head teacher who was doing all the duties of the head teacher.
Since parents had complained that the school was not able to function, since they could not access funds at the bank, Mdziniso said a provision wasn made for this. He said to allow the deputy head teacher to sign for funds, he had written a letter to the relevant authority, requesting that the deputy be allowed to sign for the funds. Mdziniso was asked if the deputy head teacher had been granted the access to sign for release of funds at the bank. He said he was yet to find out this as he would be heading to the school last Friday.