Officials in a spin over Mbizana textbook crisis

A STATE of confusion has arisen in Mbizana where not a single school is said to have received textbooks for this school year.

However, Eastern Cape education bosses said at least 30 schools had received them.

DA MPL Edmund van Vuuren, who is also the shadow MEC for education, revealed yesterday that during a visit to Mbizana as part of a provincial legislature oversight delegation to check on the readiness of schools for this year, they had been told that not a single textbook had been delivered to schools in the area.

Van Vuuren said education authorities in the district had placed orders for more than 863 000 textbooks from Grade 1 to Grade 12 for the 214 schools in the district.

“It is no surprise that the Eastern Cape has been the worst performer in the matric results for the past six years if the procurement of textbooks cannot be professionally managed,” he said.

“The department continues to deny pupils the necessary resources to start their academic year.

“It is bitter to the extreme that our future leaders can be treated with such disdain and can be neglected to the extent that they have to find their own way in the classrooms to prepare for the next day, without that most necessary and basic textbook.”

Van Vuuren told the Saturday Dispatch yesterday the shocking revelation about the non-delivery of the textbooks had been made to his delegation by Mbizana education district director, Victor Vuyisile Mkentane, during a stakeholder meeting on Wednesday. Mkentane yesterday confirmed that no textbooks had been delivered to schools in Mbizana.

“Initially we had been given the impression that they would be delivered on the 9th and 10th since the schools were reopening on January 11,” he said.

“However, all the stationery and workbooks were delivered on time.”

The district director said the textbooks were ordered in September last year.

When contacted 30 minutes later, provincial education spokesman Loyiso Pulumani dismissed the claims, saying at least 30 schools had already received their textbooks.

The spokesman claimed he had received the information after speaking to the warehouse manager in Mbizana and the manager responsible for the distribution of books. — sikhon@dispatch.co.za