New textbook crunch for some schools

THOUSANDS of pupils are likely to face another year without textbooks — this time because some provincial education departments will not replace lost books next year.

Pupils in Mpumalanga and North West are affected by this decision.

Details of yet another textbook crunch comes in the wake of the Department of Basic Education’s Supreme Court of Appeal bid to overturn a ruling against the Limpopo education department in which Judge Neil Tuchten found that the nondelivery of textbooks to pupils was a violation of their right to education.

The department argues that although minister Angie Motshekga and her directorgeneral were committed to providing a textbook for every child in every grade, “perfection is not the constitutional standard”.

Mpumalanga education department spokesman Jasper Zwane said his department had set aside R12-million to buy textbooks for new schools as well as for those that had new grades next year.

The North West education department said it would be buying top-ups for only its Grade 12 pupils and pupils at its special schools.

Gauteng’s education department said it was spending about R1-million on “top-up” textbooks.

Other provinces that will be replacing lost books or those not returned to the school at the end of the year include the Northern Cape, which will spend R15.8-million on 188 016 books; and the Western Cape, whose replacements will be funded by an overall R205-million allocation to schools to top up their textbook stocks.

KwaZulu-Natal bought just over 3.9 million textbooks at a cost of R283.2-million, while a further R282.7-million was paid to schools that bought their own textbooks.

KwaZulu-Natal education department spokesman Muzi Mahlambi said 99.2% of textbooks had already been delivered to schools and the remaining 0.8% would be delivered tomorrow.

The Eastern Cape education department has yet to order additional textbooks for next year. The Publishers’ Association of South Africa said that as at the end of October, the Eastern Cape still owed publishers R27.7million for previous textbook deliveries. —