By EDN Reporter
The Ministry of Education continues to receive the biggest share of the budget, as Finance Minister Neal Rijkenberg announced a E3.96 billion allocation for education.
This according to the minister represents a E430 million increase over 2022.
“The education sector including scholarships of E647 million represents 19% of the total budget. This is in line with the government’s commitment to 15% of the National Budget being spent on Education,” Rijkenberg said.
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Further good news for schools is that the government has finally decided to review upwards the Free Primary Education grant per learner by 20 per cent, which is an increase of E45.6 million.
This good news excited Education Minister Lady Howard Mabuza when interviewed by Eswatini TV. She said the government will now be able to provide basics including school feeding schemes.
“Government has developed a web-based Education Management Information System that will be used by all schools in the country (both public and private schools) to update and capture both learner and staff information using their personal identity number (PIN) and track them in the education system in real-time.”
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“The system will also be of great use in the disbursement of the Free Primary Education (FPE) grants, human resource management for the Teaching Service Commission (TSC), and schools’ assessment for the Inspectorate. There are about 400 000 learners and 16 000 teachers that will be recorded and tracked by the system,” he said.
The finance minister further announced that the government is piloting the 4-year secondary school programme of institutionalising as a build-up to the A/AS levels as a school leaving certificate.
“This will enable learners to access tertiary education regionally and internationally without having to go through bridging courses. A total of 32 schools have started implementing the 4-year certificate in 2022. In the academic year 2023, the Ministry of Education will be conducting checkpoint assessments for the pilot schools,” he said.
