Education

The City of Manzini is littered with a number of schools – from pre-school to tertiary level. The norm is that children would begin their pre-school education at the age of around three (3) years. At the age of seven (7) they would proceed for primary education where they would do seven (7) class levels before proceeding to secondary level/junior certificate level (for three years) and thereafter undergo a two-year higher education programme. Depending on their examination results, they would thereafter enroll at the tertiary institution of their choice.

For many years, all schools in the Kingdom of Eswatini have been under the direct control of central government. However in recent years the City of Manzini has seen the emergence of privately owned schools. These schools also follow the national schools curriculum and, to a certain extent, central government monitors their operations. Pre-schools usually begin their day at 8am and close at 12pm. The lower grades of primary education normally begin their day at 7:45am until 1pm while the higher primary levels commence at the same time and close at 2pm. The secondary and higher education levels begin their day at 7:45am and end at around 4pm. All schools operate from Monday to Friday. None of them is open on weekends and public holidays.

The school calendar year allows two end-of-term breaks. The end-of-year break is quite longer – stretching from December to almost the end of January the following year. The central government recently rolled out a free primary school education programme. While the first university in the Kingdom of Eswatini is based in neighbouring Matsapha (about 8km away from Manzini City), several tertiary institutions are available in Manzini. Most popular are the Southern Africa Nazarene University (SANU), Nazarene Teacher Training College and the William Pitcher Teacher Training College. All of these and others offer high quality education.