Pay or no writing of exams – govt

MBABANE – Despite issuing a circular instructing schools not to send pupils home for outstanding fees, learners should not expect a free pass to the examination room.

The Ministry of Education and Training has come out to state that no pupil will be allowed to sit for the final examination without having paid the required fees. Principal Secretary (PS) in the ministry Bheki Gama told the Times SUNDAY that government will honour its obligation by paying for those it is supposed to pay for and parents should also do likewise.

“Exam fees must be paid. Those who have not paid will not be allowed to write the exams, it’s as simple as that,” he said.

According to a fee structure from the Examinations Council of Eswatini, pupils who will sit for the IGCSE Exam this year are expected to pay an entry fee of E186 and E1 121 per subject. A pupil who will be writing one subject is, therefore, expected to pay E1 307; for two subjects it’s E2 484; for three subjects it’s E3 549; and E4 670 for four subjects.

MAXIMUM

The maximum number of subjects a pupil can write is eight, and the cost of these is E9 154; while it is E8 033 for seven subjects; E6 192 for six subjects and E5 791 for five subjects.

The deadline day was initially set for

May 20, 2022, as per the notice issued by the Exams Council.

It is also stated therein that should a pupil fail to meet the deadline, there is late entry fee of E870 per subject provided this is paid between May 23 and June 30. Should a pupil also miss the late entry deadline there is another window that is opened between July 1 and July 31, but this also comes with a further additional cost of E2 270 per subject. In the circular, which was issued last Thursday, there is no mention of what schools should do in the case of pupils who had not paid their examination fees.

This is in spite of Parliament having moved and passed a motion calling on the Minister of Education and Training to ensure that no pupil would be expelled from school temporarily or permanently, because of owing fees, while government urgently came up with a concise plan of action on how it would fund fees being owed by the pupils, including examination fees.

IMMEDIATE

The ministry then issued the circular, which calls upon ‘all head teachers to recall all pupils who might have been expelled for owing fees with immediate effect’.

Having looked at the circular, this publication then sought further clarity from the PS on whether the instruction applied to all pupils who had been expelled, irrespective of the year in which the expulsion happened.

To this Gama said: “The students (pupils) being referred to are those that were sent home this year. We are speaking to the current year.”

He reiterated that the money being referred to as being owed by pupils was ‘the one that government never paid fully in one of the tears as OVC grant’. The PS was also asked if stopping those who had not paid examination fees from writing would be considered to contradict the spirit of the circular, he said it would not.

“Government will pay for those in its list and parents will pay for theirs, he said.

Mduduzi Masilela, the Secretary General (SG) of the Eswatini Principals Associations (EPA), said following the issuance of the circular, they engaged the ministry to seek further guidance on the way forward.

“The association is hopeful that a long-lasting solution to this predicament will be achieved as soon as its is practically possible,” he said.

CHALLENGES

He said as a EPA they understood the growing financial challenges faced by parents and guardians of learners.

However, he said schools also have overheads and other financial obligations to fulfil in order to operate efficiently and effectively.

“The process of teaching and learning is effective when schools are properly financed,” Masilela stated.

When asked about their interpretation of the circular in terms of how far back it goes to look at when the pupils were expelled, the secretary general said EPA’s understanding is that ‘it is cross-cutting’.

He said they currently did not have the number of pupils who would have to be recalled after being expelled for outstanding school fees and they would have to consult their membership to determine this data.

“Important to mention is that the ministry will have to devise a plan for funding schools,” he said.

Mhlanga further stated that with the current status quo, there is no free education in the country; ‘parents are still expected to pay school and exam fees’.

“EPA hopes that whatever plan is drawn, will promote both access and quality education as requirement for SDG 4,” he said.

PRESSURE

Adding, he said it was also their hope that the plan to be drawn by the ministry would not put pressure on the already over-stretched taxpayer.

“This is articulated from the premise that everything has a cost attached to it. There is no free education,” he said.

According to the Parliament motion, which was moved by Lobamba Lomdzala Member of Parliament (MP) Marwick Khumalo and seconded by Manzini South MP Thandi Nxumalo, the Minister of Education and Training, Lady Mabuza, is expected to table in the House of Assembly, within four weeks, the plan on of action on how government will fund the fees being owed by pupils, including examination fees.

The plan should also include how government is going to arrest permanently the problem of paying fees on time.

CONFERENCE

Last Tuesday, during a press conference at the KMIII International Airport, the minister told the Times of Eswatini daily newspaper that currently, in secondary and high school, government was paying school fees for over 50 per cent of the pupils.

She said this was because more than half of the pupils who were in these levels of school were registered under the OVC programme.

She said under this programme, the guardians of these pupils only paid topup fees, so that the learners could have stationery, among other things.