THE University of Swaziland administration called off an open debate, which was meant to engage concerned parties on a discussion about the crisis facing the education system of Swaziland on the last hour on Thursday.

The panelists for the debate got the shock of their lives when security guards could not let them through the gates, mentioning that they had received an order to bar them from the Institution’s administration as the debate was illegal. The debate was organised by the campus’ Student Representative Committee (SRC) on behalf of the students and had been dubbed: ‘Educational Crisis and the Future of the Swazi Child’.

“We wanted everyone to come armed to teeth with ideas on how we could thrash out a way forward towards an education bias to a majority of us and all our descendants,” said SRC chairperson Wandile Dludlu.

Recently, UNISWA students staged a protest march to the Ministry of Education to deliver a petition of grievances over their dissatisfaction on the operations of the ministry. Among other grievances was the issue of awarding scholarships; Over 1500 students had not received governments’ scholarship but subsequently the ministry promised to address the issue.

UNISWA registrar Sipho Vilakati, in an interview, stated that the students did not go through the proper channels when organising the debate.

He said it was well spelt out in the University regulations that an application to the administration should be made when students want to utilise campus facilities.

He said; “It is true that the university called off the debate. The students know exactly what procedures to be followed when hosting any function.”

However, he added that it was not every time that when students applied to use any campus’ facility be granted a permission.

“”There is a certain process the administration uses to weigh the application, and the answer is either yes or no.”

Debate

Among the debate panelists were Zombodze Emuva Member of Parliament Titus Thwala, PUDEMO (People’s United Democratic Movement) President Mario Masuku, SNAT (Swaziland National Association of Teachers) President Simon Makhanya and Musa Hlophe from Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Citizens.

Thwala, in an interview, stated that the debate would have brought new ideas and hope to the vulnerable Swazi child.

He said, “We believe there were no political reasons behind the cancellation of the debate.

“But what I want to assure every Swazi child is that we shall not give up nor give in. If it calls us to hold the debate outside the `university structure’, we will do that without fail.” Addressing the students, Thwala said, the debate was an issue that needed contributions from the Swazis themselves. Dludlu mentioned that much as students adhere to university regulations, they were also concerned about the well being of the students as well as those behind them.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 23rd, 2006 at 8:04 pm and is filed under Education, Scholarship. Tags: Education, Grant, Scholarship, Student. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.