Stationery prices shoot up

Most corners in cities have now been taken up by book vendors who are taking advantage of the demands for books and pirating the stationery.

This has also prejudiced writers of money as their works are now being pirated.

Primary and Secondary Education Minister Cde Cain Mathema said the Government was aware of the situation at hand and was trying to come in but was also under constraint.

He said distribution of some of the textbooks was underway although the numbers were still very small.

On piracy, Cde Mathema said ultimately to kill the scourge, more local authors must develop literature for new Education Curriculum especially those majoring in native languages.

“I am encouraging local individuals who are authors to approach the ministry so that we publish those textbooks as they are in short supply. By so doing we are making it possible for every child to access necessary learning material.

“As a ministry we want people to make money by producing books for students from ECD right up to tertiary level and in this manner everyone will benefit. I also encourage university students majoring in languages to produce material so as to reduce piracy as we have little material in schools,” said Cde Mathema.

He said piracy has always been there but it was spiralling due to the shortage of text books for the new curriculum.

“Piracy is not a new thing but it has recently become more popular even in schools, therefore as Government we have embarked on taking disciplinary measures to counter this act by increasing fines for criminal offences by up to 200 percent in a new scale of fines announced in terms of the Finance Act and the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act,” said Cde Mathema.