Controversy in the Baha'i Primary School in Swaziland

Quinton Dlamini is the new chairman of the
Baha'i school committee

Parents of children attending school at Bahai Primary recently stunned elders of the Bahai faith when they elected controversial President of the National Public Servants and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU) Quinton Dlamini as chairman of the school committee.

The school has been run by a management board for many years. The elders were allegedly taken by surprise when the parents made a demand to have a school committee.

It was gathered that things came to a head when parents wanted nothing but to elect their own school committee. 

The election of Dlamini comes in the wake of an old standing policy of the mission that the school should be run by a school management board.

The parents allegedly said they were still to be convinced that the school was owned by the mission school.

In one of the meetings, the parents are said to have demanded a bank statement from the mission that shows its contribution towards the running of the school.

The meeting felt that the operations of the school was financed by parents and therefore wanted a school committee to run the affairs of the school. A source at the school disclosed that even school funds were not controlled by the principal but the funds were administered by a bursar, who is a daughter to one of the elders of the faith.

“It is not known if the mission was indeed in charge of the school.

 “We are still to be convinced if the school was indeed receiving funding from the mission. We have tried to get answers on that but have not been getting any answers from the elders of the Bahai faith,” said a source.

The issue of the control of the school has caused a rift between parents and the management of the school. All this unfolded during a parents meeting that was attended by officials from the ministry of education and training.

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