MBABANE: The private school on the foothills of the Mdzimba Range in Mbabane is arguably one of the Kingdom’s best schools – in all respects. It is pristine. Exceptionally well organized – the paragon of academic excellence and the pride of students, teachers and parents.
But under the surface, not all is well at the school.
Underlying differences have come to the surface at heated parents’ meetings – most recently on Tuesday. Parents are unhappy that the school has been without a headteacher for 13 months now. The deputy head teacher who held the position for 6 months, was not confirmed, allegedly because she fell out with the school’s board of governors. The teacher is now suing the school in a matter now before the courts.
Parents want their board of governors to appoint a substantive school head, a remit of the ministry of education.
Board chairman Sicelo Mashwama interviewed on SBIS said parents who are a major stakeholder and source of the funds that run the school want their principal and also demand to be fully consulted in the governance of the school.
“The issues are not just financial,” Mr. Mashwama explained. “The finances of the school are clear because we engage independent auditors to prepare a credible financial report that we have presented to parents. Of course any report will elicit questions and require clarification but that is not the main point of contention.”
Below the surface is however the deeper issue: Who owns Sifundzani school?.
In its website, the school describes itself as an independent quality education institution. It traces its history to its founding head teacher Mrs Mary Fraser who heeded a plea of Sifundzani Primary School to extend the school with a high school facility to absorb students exiting Grade 7, resulting in the secondary school which enrolled its first form 1 class in 1996. It says the school pioneered and established the IGCSE and HIGCSE syllabus which has made a great contribution to the education of the Kingdom.
It is a public profile that is beginning to rile the Ministry of Education which sent its Regional Education Officer Dr. Nathi Nkambule to be present at the parent’s meeting on Tuesday. Dr. Nkambule addressed what appear to be widely held misconception and whose private school the school is.
“Sifundzani is a private school that is fully owned by Government. It is a vision endorsed by King Sobhuza ll deliberately to create a private school facility that would offer the same quality of education that would meet the needs of expatriates and diplomats. Government then conceived an idea to use the school as an incubator for harnessing global best practices that can be replicated to improve the education system.”
“Infact that is where we derive the school’s name ‘Sifundzani’ (what can we learn) which is evocative of the school’s purpose. There is no doubt that the school was created by government, built by government, funded by government which to this day hires and pays the school staff”.
Dr. Nkambule says the school, both primary and secondary is used by government to emulate global practices and innovations to improve the domestic education system. Among the lessons piloted at Sifundzani was the trial of a shorter secondary school programme that eliminated the junior certificate examination so that secondary school is 4 instead of the 5 years. This new format is now being piloted in 32 schools.”
“It’s a Government school that was given autonomy to operate as a private”. The problem Dr. Nkambule hints, started two years ago when a new board came in with an attitude that is not well informed about the history of the school.
“Government worked harmoniously with previous governors of the school. They reported to the ministry enabling us to perform our mandate of close monitoring. We now feel as if government is no longer needed here, and that we are seen as interfering. The Board takes decisions at school level and we are not informed. When the ministry approaches the school, we are made to feel unwelcome. They ignore communication of the Principal Secretary. They demand the schools title deeds. They question the school’s MoU with Government. They are confusing parents,” Dr. Nkambule complained.
The Ministry expects the board to present its budget to the ministry first so that it fulfils its responsibility of protecting the public from exorbitant charges and ensure that all fees represent value for money. It is the function of the ministry to assess all schools both public and private especially to determine that fees paid are fair and in the case of private schools, that they are consistent with their licence conditions. In the case of Sifundzani, the Board did not present its budget to the ministry before presenting it to parents. We found ourselves in the same boat with parents. When parents want clarity from the board, the ministry also requires the same clarity.”
In the heated exchanges at the school meeting, Dr. Nkambule is accused of calling the Board of Governors puppies, which inflamed some parents to walk out.
Mr. Mashwama promises that another parents’ meeting will be called to resolve the school’s issues.
jm/today/19.10.2024
