By Musa Mdluli

MBABANE:Mabulala Maseko, the Minister of Public Service says the decision to employ teachers on contract was triggered by the demand for educators after the introduction of the Free Primary Education(FPE).

Responding to a Parliament motion on Thursday supported by Mayiwane Member of Parliament(MP) Sicelo ‘KhungaNkhosi’ Dlamini, the Minister said the Free Primary Education resulted to the building of more schools and a demand for teachers.

“The employment of teachers on a fixed term contract basis was not there in past years. This phenomenal is relatively new as it started after the introduction of free Primary Education which came with a sudden increased demand for the employment of more teachers in order to meet school enrollments. The Honourable House will recall that the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) introduced the Free Primary Education (FPE) in 2009 in line with the Constitution of the Kingdom of Eswatini, 2005, Section 29(6) which states that: “every Swazi child shall, within three years of the commencement of this Constitution, have the right to free education in public schools at least up to the end of primary school, beginning with the first grade”, he said.

The Public Service Minister said, the free Primary Education dispensation necessitated the employment of additional teachers due to the increase in the enrolment of students in Government schools and an increase in the number of class streams. 

“Schools that did not have sufficient class rooms constructed additional classrooms to accommodate the increased number of students. Moreover, certain subjects like Religious Education was made a core subject requiring additional teachers for that subject. Government also endorsed as critical the subject of ICT and other TVET programmes such as Consumer Science and Design & Technology,” he said.