Books gather dust as Limpopo pupils battle

SENIOR pupils at a Limpopo school are studying English literature by reading photostat copies of study guides instead of the actual novel or short story.

At least 80 Grade 11 pupils and 50 Grade 12 pupils at Klaas Mothapo Secondary, about 30km from Polokwane, don’t have English setworks despite claims by the Limpopo department of education this week that all schools had received textbooks.

The Grade 11 and 12 English setworks include the novel Nothing But the Truth by John Kani and Learning to Fly and Other Stories by Dorothy Dyer, Lawrence Hoepner and Colleen Radus. Only 15 of the 110 Grade 10 pupils at Klaas Mothapo have copies of the book They Fought for Freedom: Nelson Mandela.

The school declined to comment, but a parent, who raised the plight of the pupils, described the situation as “shocking”. It was established that some schools in the province only received textbooks on March 2 despite placing orders as far back as 2012.

The principal of a high school about 55km from Polokwane said she ordered 31 geography textbooks in July 2012 but received only 11 recently.

She said her Grade 10 and 11 pupils had not had economics, geography, maths literacy and accounting textbooks since 2012. “We were tired of making follow-ups because every time you phone, they [departmental officials] say it’s a long order,” the principal said.

Another school complained that it had ordered 27 maths learners’ books for Grade 8 but received only nine, and ordered 29 social science textbooks for Grade 8 but received only 14.

Meanwhile, thousands of books gathered dust in the storeroom of one school for months last year because education department officials al- legedly failed to collect them timeously.

The school’s principal declined to comment, but the Sunday Times has established that:

Many of the books could not be used because they were in English while the school is Afrikaans-medium;

ý Hundreds of other books that were delivered were for subjects that were not taught at the school; and

The school received more than 200 textbooks for Sepedi, a subject not taught at the school.

This was confirmed by a member of the school’s governing body.

“The school asked officials to fetch them, but there was no response. It called the department again in frustration. Eventually, months later, the books were picked up,” he said.

Limpopo education department spokesman Paena Galane described the claim by a school of surplus books lying in its storeroom as “a ghost claim”. “If it really exists, then we have a crisis of a principal because in this case it meant the principal believed there was no other available avenue for him or her to sort this issue.”

He also denied that schools had not received books that were ordered three years ago.

“If there is any school that did not receive any material, it means they don’t have a principal and school management.”

The department supplied more than 1.6 million pupils with textbooks and stationery, he said. “In Limpopo currently we are faced with principals who are unable to manage these schools. There are discussions to take some of them to attend management courses for a specific period so that issues like these do not happen.”

If a school did not receive any material, they don’t have a principal

Comment on this: write to tellus@sundaytimes.co.za or SMS us at 33971 www.timeslive.co.za