Many pupils 'waiting for textbooks'
2013-03-18 22:24
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Johannesburg
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Johannesburg - About 54% of South African pupils claim
they do not have all the textbooks they need for school, a survey revealed on
Monday.
Forty percent said they had all their textbooks and 5%
said they had no textbooks, consumer insights company Pondering Panda said.
"The experience of learners themselves once again
shows that government is not doing enough to get textbooks into the hands of
pupils," spokesperson Shirley Wakefield said.
"With more than half of learners saying they don’t
have the books they need, it’s clear that the quality of education in South
African schools is suffering tremendously as a result of this. But this is only
half the battle."
For the survey, a total of 3 544 pupils across the
country, aged between 13 and 24, were interviewed by cellphone and asked about
their perceptions about the textbooks they had in school.
Pupils in Limpopo and Mpumalanga appeared to be bearing
the brunt of the country's textbook shortages.
Only 27% of Limpopo pupils said they had all the
textbooks they needed, compared to 69% who said they did not.
In Mpumalanga, 36% of pupils reported having all their
textbooks, while 61% said they were missing books.
The survey showed the Western Cape was the best
provisioned.
Most pupils complained the textbooks they were using were
old or in bad condition.
Thirty three percent said the books were old, but still
useable. About 21% said their books were most likely to be old, damaged and to
have pages missing.
Eleven percent said their textbooks were new, but already
in a bad condition.
Less than a third (31%) said their textbooks were both
new and in a good condition.
The survey found that textbooks were regularly lost or
went missing and that the replacement of books was slow.
- SAPA
