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Education
seen as the saviour in Swaziland
By James Hall,
Inter Press Service |
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 MBABANE,
10 March (IPS) - Troubled by an unemployment rate of 45 percent
and devastated by a high HIV infection rate of at least 25 percent,
Swaziland has decided its salvation lies in the educational
advancement of its people. |
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| ''Only
through learning will we know the ways to protect ourselves
in an epidemic,'' says health worker Thandi Mabusa, while former
education minister Solomon Dlamini believes, people armed with
the basic tools of entrepreneurship will be able to find jobs,
and create their own livelihoods. |
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| ''Empirical
evidence shows that the quality of life for a people has a very
strong correlation to their level of education,'' said Finance
Minister John Carmichael when he presented to Parliament a 2000
budget that assigns a record 28 percent of government expenditures
to the education sector. |
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The
government's Economic and Social Reform Agenda, launched last
September to much fanfare, noted the link between a rising
standard of living -- the majority of Swazis are poor -- and
the level of people's education.
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| The
policy blueprint calls for an annual one percent increase in
government expenditures on education. |
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| But
while government pays teachers' salaries, universal free education
is beyond the treasury's capacity. Cash-strapped parents must
pay school fees, and these can be an onerous burden for the
rural poor. |
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| If
one child has to be selected to receive education, it is generally
the boy in Swazi society. Swazi women are financially disenfranchised,
suffer unwanted pregnancies because of ignorance of reproductive
health issues and are victims of HIV virus. |
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| Non-governmental
organisations are at the forefront of education reform in Swaziland.
Their message is being heard by traditional authorities in sub-Saharan
Africa's last absolute monarchy, who decide what is to be taught
in classrooms, and how. |
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| It
also helps that the polygamous King Mswati has five wives whose
education level far surpasses queens of the past. Last year,
Queen LaMbikisa acquired her law degree, and she intends to
use her royal status as a pulpit to encourage women's education.. |
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Her husband, the king, seems to agree that education
rather than military expenditure, favoured by some neighbouring
states, should be a national priority. |
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| Delivering
this year's State of the Kingdom address, he emphasised the
need for those in school to stay there, and decried teenage
pregnancies that mean automatic expulsion for girl students.
Mswati encouraged his older subjects to take advantage of adult
literacy classes that since the 1960s have taught thousands
of illiterate Swazis to read and write. |
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| Donor
money to finance micro-projects, community co- operatives, and
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is readily available through
grants from the European Union, the United States, the Republic
of China and other friends of Swaziland. |
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| But
business skills and practical knowledge are required to create
and sustain these enterprises. Finance Minister Carmichael reported
to Parliament that new funds intended for ''pre- vocational
education, which is aimed at switching emphasis away from institutional
training to industry based training.'' |
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| Says
primary school teacher Agnes Motsa, ''Learning job skills is
not enough, children have to be taught to think imaginatively
and to conceive solutions.'' |
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| Such
an approach is the opposite of the colonial-era education provided
by missionary schools: pedagogy that was aimed at producing
low-level bureaucrats but not managers, technicians but not
innovators. In subtle ways, this legacy persists. |
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| King
Mswati launched a 25-year National Development Strategy last
year with the view that ''our school curriculum for basic education
must be designed to foster creative and inquisitive minds.''
He also emphasised flexibility. |
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| A
traditional nation besieged by economic and health crises, for
which history has offered no precedent, will need flexible thinking
for its survival, not only in education but in culture. |
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| ''Education
will lead the way,'' says social worker Kenneth Dlamini. Educated
women will ''band together to form businesses and co-operatives,
despite the constraints of a patriarchal culture. We are already
seeing this.'' |
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| In
Swaziland, communities build their own schools on communal land
granted by chiefs. But many schools lack electricity and running
water, and children who are often undernourished must walk long
distances to attend classes. |
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| This
affects their ability to study well. With help from international
donors and an Education Ministry programme changes are underway,
including the introduction of the first computers in rural schools
in April. |
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| For
the first time resources are being taken outside the urban centres,
which policymakers hope will stop the migration out of the rural
areas. Currently, many rural children migrate to towns for better
education. |
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| ''The
national leadership seems to have its priorities straight,''
says schoolteacher Motsa. |
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| This
article is free of copyright restrictions and can be reproduced
provided that Inter Press Service is credited. |
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