Provincial education departments scramble to ensure textbook plans add up
The Eastern Cape education department is pulling out all the stops to prevent a recurrence of this year’s embarrassing scandal when it was hauled to court for failing to deliver textbooks and stationery to schools on time.
It has ordered more than 1.6million textbooks at a cost of almost R189.6m for delivery to the province’s 5,023 state schools before the start of the new academic year on January 18.
In March, Makhanda high court judge Murray Lowe ordered the department to ensure that every pupil was provided with a full complement of stationery and textbooks by no later than the end of that month.
His ruling followed an urgent application brought by the Legal Resources Centre in Makhanda on behalf of the Khula Community Development Project.
Judge Lowe also ordered the head of education in Eastern Cape to submit an affidavit to court by September 30 indicating the progress in planning and procurement of learning and teaching support material [LTSM] for the start of the new academic year in January.
In response, the acting head of department, Mahlubandile Qwase, stated in an affidavit that to avert the situation that confronted the department at the beginning of the year, the budget for textbooks and stationery had been “ring-fenced” which meant the money could not be used for any other purpose.
After the late delivery of textbooks, Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane suspended the head of department, Naledi Mbude.
Qwase said they met textbook publishers in August and subsequently placed orders.
“The delivery of textbooks to the department’s central warehouse in East London is an ongoing daily process.”
He said the delivery of stationery was to have started on October 24.
“The logistics and final dates for delivery is determined by a number of external factors, such as when the delivery by the suppliers and manufacturers to the department takes place, as well as inclement weather.”
He said he was not in a position to provide the court with a “definitive timetable” for the delivery of textbooks and stationery.
“All systems have been put in place to ensure delivery of textbooks and stationery will be completed in time for the beginning of the new year on January 18.”
But DA education spokesperson in Eastern Cape, Edmund van Vuuren, said the department “should in no sense be hailed as hero if they are able to provide the schools with LTSM in time for the start of the 2023 academic year”.
“It is the department’s function and mandate to provide these pupils with LTSM and it should not be seen as an achievement but a normal function of the department.”
He said some schools received stationery “without lines in the pages”, adding: “The quality of the stationery is shocking.”
Meanwhile, Western Cape education department spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said orders mostly for top-up textbooks were placed by schools by August 12.
“The full complement of textbooks required were procured and the department assisted some schools to more accurately determine their requirements.”
Textbooks worth R62.6m were ordered and delivered to schools by October 28.
She said schools retrieved 93% of textbooks at the end of last year.
“Every cent replacing a textbook that should have been retained in the system is money that could have been spent on the provision of additional textbooks and resources.”
She said schools must either request parents to replace a lost textbook or pay the school for the cost of a replacement textbook.
Gauteng education spokesperson Steve Mabona said textbooks worth almost R459.8m were ordered by schools and that delivery to schools started from August 2.
“Schools started with the textbook retrieval process on October 31, and will conclude by December 7. The retrieval rate in 2021 was 94%.”
Northern Cape education department spokesperson Sydney Stander said 341 schools opted to buy textbooks through the department, while 204 opted to buy directly from suppliers.
“All LTSM is expected to be in schools by November 30.”
He said the retrieval rate of textbooks last year was between 96% and 98%, as most primary schools kept textbooks in the classrooms.
“No school is allowed to withhold pupils’ report cards for not returning textbooks,” he said.