Minister of Education and Training Owen Nxumalo has ordered that all 100 contract teachers, whose contracts were not renewed following a recent verification exercise, be reinstated immediately.
The ministry will be addressing the issues surrounding their qualifications meanwhile.
The directive came during the 2025 Form V results press conference yesterday, where Nxumalo responded to concerns regarding the rejected teachers in the Manzini region. These teachers did not meet the minimum academic requirements, which included having at least three credits in their Form V results, with a mandatory pass in English. As a result, they were initially informed that their contracts would not be renewed.
Nxumalo emphasised that, despite the challenges, there was no fault on the ministry’s part in this situation. “The ministry had previously engaged with the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) and the ministry of public service, they came to an agreement that all contract teachers should have their contracts renewed,” Nxumalo explained.
“Now, we are emphasising that agreement and we request that those remaining teachers be included as well. As a ministry we are playing our role here while ironing out other issues.”
The minister insisted that there was no conflict between the ministry and the TSC. He called for urgent attention to the issue to ensure that all the affected teachers have their contracts renewed by next week. “These teachers should be allowed to return to work while we attend to their issues,” Nxumalo added.
The matter of where the affected teachers would eventually work, given their disqualification, was also addressed. The minister made it clear that the responsibility to ensure that only qualified individuals are admitted into teacher training programmes lies with the Eswatini Higher Education Council (ESHEC).
He pointed out that many of the colleges involved had received official accreditation, meaning that the students who graduated from them had met the necessary academic criteria at the time of enrollment.
“ESHEC must continue its work. It should not be the student’s fault,” Nxumalo remarked. “The colleges we are talking about received accreditation before and if parents paid for their education, it does not look good for the credibility of their qualifications to be questioned now.”
Nxumalo emphasised that it would be unfair to place the blame on the students themselves for the shortcomings of the colleges. He explained that the colleges involved were granted the right to train teachers by the relevant authorities and the students who graduated from these institutions had fulfilled the necessary academic requirements when they applied.
Despite these concerns, the minister assured that the ministry would look closely into the issue, including how students were admitted to teacher training programmes. He called for a more comprehensive review, stating that “in the meantime, those teachers’ contracts should be renewed.”
In addition, he acknowledged the need for a more rigorous approach to overseeing teacher training. He called for the ministry and leaders of tertiary institutions to seek permission from ESHEC to conduct audit inspections at the colleges, to ensure that they are accepting only qualified students into their teaching programmes. “It will not be fair at this point not to renew their contracts when they were already engaged,” Nxumalo stated. “This suggests that someone down the line did not do their job properly. Therefore, the ministry, as the superior body overseeing ESHEC, must emphasise the need for audit inspections at these institutions to make sure the students they accept meet the minimum requirements to study there.”
Nxumalo’s comments came in response to a growing outcry from the affected teachers, many of whom were left devastated after being informed that their contracts would not be renewed.
These teachers had expected to continue their work after reporting to the Regional Education Office to collect their posting letters.
The decision to disqualify them was based on the failure to meet the academic criteria.
The Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) also weighed in on the matter, with its Secretary General, Lot Vilakati, criticising the ministry’s handling of the situation. Vilakati argued that the teachers, many of whom had taken loans to study at accredited institutions, should not be penalised for the oversight.
