Limpopo districts haven’t received textbooks for 2017

12 January 2017

Following a school oversight campaign to determine school readiness this week, the DA can confirm that all schools in Waterberg, Sekhukhune and Mopani Districts have not received their textbook cache and in the Capricorn and Vhembe districts only around 50% of the schools received their textbooks and LTSM (learner teacher support materials).

The DA is deeply concerned that the Limpopo MEC for Education, Ishmael Kgetjepe, has yet again distorted the truth and covered up the condemnable failure by his department to deliver textbooks to schools in Limpopo for the new academic year.

MEC Kgetjepe must urgently make a public statement on this failure to deliver textbooks, and furnish a clear plan to rectify this as a matter of urgency.

According to our sources in the department, a contractor that was meant to provide the LTSM was appointed “very late” and that the fault cannot be laid at the service provider’s door.

MEC Kgetjepe was gloating about the successfully executed textbook delivery for the 2017 school year during the release of 2016 National Senior Certificate results for Limpopo last week in Polokwane, but the reality is that the department has failed to do his job and has let down thousands of poor learners across Limpopo.

The sad truth is that the department continues to lack the capacity and the political will to prioritise learning.

This may explain why the Matric pass rate has declined by 10,4% over the last two years. This isn’t just a figure – these are students who deserve a quality education and the opportunities that it brings with it.

The DA will not give up until every school in Limpopo receives the textbooks they need to teach our children. Education remains the best way to fight inequality and poverty, and we will do everything possible to ensure that every learner is given the chance to succeed in our province.

Issued by Jacques Smalle, DA Limpopo Provincial Leader, 12 January 2017