Dept urges pupils and teachers to ‘give back’

AS THE 2019 academic year begins to draw to a close, the Northern Cape Department of Education has called on teachers and pupils to return Learning and Teaching Support Material (LTSM) resources, such as school textbooks timeously.

The department yesterday commenced its 100% Retrieval of Textbooks Campaign. Department spokesperson Geoffrey van der Merwe said that the non-returning of learning material had both budgetary and learning implications.

“Too many pupils are not accepting accountability in terms of preserving LTSM allocated to them. Many schools and educators perceive and accept that damaged and non-returned books is a given and therefore do not consider the exercise of retrieving such material as serious,” said Van der Merwe.

“The retrieval rate impacts on already constrained budget allocations and the quality of education. These resources form an integral and vital part of our education system and the effective management, utilisation and maintenance of this valuable resource will ensure access and support to the delivery of quality education for our pupils.

“The department has committed that every pupil must have a core textbook for every subject in every grade. If this resource is not protected and valued, money which otherwise could have been used for new innovative LTSM has to be used to replace books that are lying in homes and the community, not being utilised.”

Van der Merwe called on parents and school principals to assist in this venture.

“Parents are requested to honour their parental responsibility in ensuring that their children act responsibly and to ensure that all textbooks loaned to their child are returned before the end of the 2019 academic year. Principals of schools are required to ensure that maximum retention of textbooks is achieved. That calls for an effective textbook retrieval system at every school in the Province,” he said.