The Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) says the conversion of 100 contract teachers’ posts to permanent is not enough.
This is because government had assured them that it will start with 1 000 posts.
This was shared by SNAT Secretary General Lot Vilakati when reacting to an announcement that 100 contract teachers would be hired permanently.
Vilakati said they learnt from Parliament reports that government would permanently employ 1 000 teachers.
He said many graduates expected to be employed since government had stopped filling the positions of contract teachers.
“Every new teacher being employed should be engaged on a permanent basis, and those who are under contracts should also be converted. We were expecting the conversion of 1 000 teachers’ posts as per government’s announcement,” he said.
Vilakati said there were presently 4 000 contract teachers.
He said the 100 teachers who are employed on contracts occupied positions for permanent teachers. He said this was the sad part about the whole issue of employing teachers in the country.
“If only they employed the 1 000 teachers permanently as per their promise, things would have been better because it would reduce the number of contract teachers. They should not employ others to replace the temporary teachers so that government can have permanent employees,” he said.
Vilakati said they do not judge employment by converting posts, but by employing a person who has recently graduated. He said government has still not employed anyone but only converted posts.
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“We want them to employ new blood, not what they are doing. Those who are on contracts are already occupying positions, which the ministries of public service and finance do not want to clarify to us as to how they are a liability because they are not, since they belonged to someone and were budgeted for,” he said.
He added that they would appreciate it if the 100 teachers would have been from the university and were employed permanently.
Minister of Education and Training Owen Nxumalo announced that government would be converting about 100 contract teachers hired in 2018 to permanent employment on Thursday when he visited Masundvwini High School.
He said teachers’ organisations would be allowed to monitor this exercise to ensure that it progresses well. These teachers are those who are Primary Teacher’s Diploma (PTD) or Bachelor of Education (BeD) degree holders who are still chasing permanence employment in the system.
Eswatini Observer Press Reader
