To raise fees after textbook squeeze

Unlike other provinces, schools in Limpopo that grant fee exemptions have not received any compensation from the department, he said. “The department thinks quintile four and five schools are collecting more money from parents; that’s why they took the decision that we should buy textbooks for ourselves. But our school is not charging a high fee.”

Another headmaster said his school fees would go up by 15%, adding: “If I have to buy seven textbooks per learner at a cost of R150 per textbook, it will cost the school more than R1.1-million. Quintile four and five schools that don’t have the money will really be in trouble.”

His school granted fee exemptions totalling R3.3-million this year to about 245 learners, he said, adding that he expected a further 100 parents to apply for fee exemptions next year if fees were hiked substantially.

Limpopo education spokesperson Naledzani Rasila said he was not aware of the department’s decision to stop supplying textbooks to quintile four and five schools.

“What I know is we started distributing books to all schools in the different quintiles towards the end of last year. I am not aware of any schools that didn’t receive it.”

The province made headlines in 2012 after learners went without textbooks for the first seven months of the year.

Meanwhile, principals at some schools in Eastern Cape, including nofee schools, said this week that their learners were still using photostat copies of textbooks because books had not yet been delivered, despite orders being placed last year.

The principal of a school in King William’s Town said its budget was being depleted because teachers were forced to use reams of paper to make copies of literature setworks for schoolchildren to use.

“Teachers make a batch, which they take to their different classes. The child doesn’t go home with a textbook in some subjects.”

Edmund van Vuuren, the Democratic Alliance’s education spokesperson in the Eastern Cape, forwarded a list of 1 725 textbooks that were outstanding in 23 subjects in grades eight, nine and 10 at Jeffreys Bay Comprehensive High School to the province’s education MEC, Mandla Makupula, in April.

Van Vuuren confirmed that learners were still sharing textbooks, adding: “Children cannot take books home because, in a lot of instances, teachers keep them in the cupboards because of the shortage of books. We can’t be surprised when our results are not what it should be.”

The Eastern Cape education department failed to respond to questions.