MBABANE: Lectures at the Eswatini College of Technology (ECOT) have refused to release results over unpaid salaries thus delaying the process of awarding part-time students who have completed the Vocational Instructors Diploma with their certificates.
Speaking to this Swaziland News, one of the affected students said they were supposed to receive their certificates in October last year but they haven’t yet received them and the delay was caused by the Principal who was refusing to pay the lecturers.
“We were supposed to receive our certificates in October 2020 and now its March, we have tried to engage the College Principal and even the Ministry of Education but all our efforts proved futile. We learnt that our Lecturers have with-held our results over unpaid salaries and the Principal was refusing to commit on a pay date. We desperately need our certificates for job hunting purposes and this delay will also affect those who may need to repeat their courses”, said one of the affected students.
When reached for comments, Nomcebo Nhlengetfwa, the Principal of the ECOT joined the fast lane, she refused to respond to our questions on the subject matter.
But Colani Maseko, the President of the Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS) said there was an education crisis in the country caused by the Tinkhundla government which failed to invest in education.
“There are a lot of issues that we need to sort at that institution. It’s high time we seek audience with the Principal just to remind her as to why she was put into that important position, the students must be respected as important stakeholders. The same thing happened at University of Eswatini (UNESWA) and the Southern Africa Nazarene University (SANU), this means there is an education crisis in this country, and it was intentionally caused by the Tinkhundla government which is failing to invest in education. We need a democratic government that will be transparent and accountable to the people”,said the SNUS President.
ECOT