DA requests urgent action to ensure schools receive textbooks
Today I will write to Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga with a request that she launch an immediate investigation into why textbooks for the 2012 school year will not be delivered to schools on time, and that she take emergency action to remedy the problem.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has learnt that when schools reopen in the province of Limpopo on 18 January 2012, there will be no new textbooks available to Grades 1-3 and Grade 10 learners. The provision of new textbooks was a central part of Minister Motshekga's much heralded education reforms.
We also learnt that only ‘some' schools in Mpumalanga and ‘many' schools in Gauteng, North West, Northern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal will receive their textbooks. Minister Motshekga's investigation must establish what ‘some' and ‘many' actually mean.
In the case of the Free State, books will not arrive on time but will get there very early in the term. We are heartened to learn that the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) performed the best because ‘most' of the schools will receive their textbooks on 11 January (coastal provinces start a week earlier in 2012). Still, no effort will be spared to turn ‘most' into ‘all'.
The reason for the delays is shoddy planning. The textbook catalogues were only released on 19 September 2011, and contained many errors. Teacher selection was haphazardly managed and the deadline for submission to publishers - 11 November - was missed. Limpopo still has not placed any orders whatsoever.
The failure of the delinquent provincial departments of education - most notably in the case of Limpopo and Mpumalanga - to do their job properly will be severely felt by the learners. Instead of being empowered, learners are being denied their right to a decent education, particularly in those provinces that can least afford it.
Statement issued by Dr Wilmot James MP, DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education, December 30 2012
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