Principals blamed for shortages

SCHOOL principals, and not the national and provincial education departments, are to blame for the shortage of textbooks in Limpopo.

This is what the national and Limpopo education departments have told the Pretoria High Court.

The departments are opposing a claim by Better Life for All, a Limpopo body comprising teachers, parents, pupils, community members and 19 school governing bodies.

They have asked the court to order the departments to provide outstanding textbooks to 39 schools in Limpopo.

The departments said yesterday that principals were to blame for the textbook shortage because they had failed to collect books from pupils at the end of last year and did not order new textbooks in time.

Lawyer for the departments, Chris Erasmus, told the court yesterday that during August and September last year the department received an order for 6.2 million textbooks for this year and all of these were delivered before the end of 2013, but at the beginning of this year schools reported the non-delivery of about 406 000 textbooks.

He said that textbooks issued last year which were part of the new curriculum should have been collected by the schools at the end of the year.

“The shortage was caused by people who did not make sure that the books were returned. We find schools that are at fault taking us to court,” Erasmus said.

Before the hearing the departments undertook to deliver all outstanding textbooks by June 6. But Better Education for All pursued the action, claiming that the departments hadn’t kept to their undertakings previously.

Judge Neil Tuchten reserved judgment.