Swazi Observer

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FRUSTRATED PGCE STUDENTS MARCH TO CABINET

By ANDILE DLAMINI | 2023-05-24

About 70 Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) students who are in their final year at the University of Eswatini yesterday marched to Cabinet where they made an impassionate plea for scholarship.

On a breezy day, the students spent over five hours camped outside the Cabinet offices, patiently waiting for the Principal Secretary in the Prime Minister’s office, Bertram Stewart, to request that their scholarship be reinstated. With the deadline for registration being on Friday, the students boarded public transport to Mbabane before marching to Cabinet offices, after noting that time was against them.

They revealed that from the group of 70, only four had registered yet this was their final year.

They arrived at the Cabinet offices as early as 9am and said they were willing to stay until Friday if that is what it called for.
To prove their point, the students came prepared to spend the rest of the week camped at Cabinet as they carried blankets, which they sat on after being denied entry into Cabinet and told that the principal secretary was in a meeting.

The students said getting to Mbabane was a struggle as they did not even have money to afford paying for the transport.

According to the students, the UNESWA management told them that available vehicles had not been filled up and as such, they could not be helped.

They acknowledged that when doing their third year of the undergraduate programme in Humanities in 2021, they were informed that government would no longer sponsor their programme as there was an influx of teachers in the country.

However, they said they had tried to engage all parties involved, including the ministry of labour and social security to allow the scholarship to run until they completed their programme to no avail.

Pressure
One of the students, Hlompho Zwane, said they were now under pressure because the registration deadline was on Friday and they were stranded as they do not have the funding.
“All along we had followed due processes, by writing to the ministry. We do acknowledge that coming here is not the proper procedure but we are desperate and the issue is time sensitive,” Zwane said.

“The registration closes on Friday and if by then we do not have a positive answer we will be forced to go home. At least then we can go home with the satisfaction that we tried our best and failed,” said the student.

He said in total there were 70 PGCE students, who had been attending lectures but only four of those were registered.

“Even those who are registered only managed to pay 20 per cent of the registration fee. We have been attending classes and not been able to access other learning materials as they are uploaded onto the university’s learning system, Moodle.

You cannot access that platform if you have not registered. So if we cannot register by Friday, we will be forced to pack our bags and go back home,” the exasperated Zwane continued. He further raised the issue of being informed of the decision to cut their scholarship while they were in the middle of the programme.

“We were only informed of the decision when we were in our third year of study. For our course of study, it helps to do the certificate so that at least you can do teaching but without it you will be forced to sit at home.”

He also explained that they opted for the programme because their points allowed them to be admitted into it.

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