Some schools still without textbooks
2012-10-30 22:42
Johannesburg - Some schools in the Limpopo province were still without their textbooks, lobby group Section27 said on Tuesday.
"While we acknowledge that more than one million textbooks have been delivered to Limpopo schools, as a result of the efforts of the department of basic education (DBE), some textbooks have still not been delivered," Section27 said in a statement.
Following a court application, brought by the lobby group in May, and a subsequent application in September, the DBE filed an affidavit on 17 October, stating all textbooks had been delivered.
Following up with schools across the province, Section27 said it had found some schools that still remained without their full complement of textbooks.
"At least three primary schools are still awaiting textbooks for Numeracy and Life Skills for learners in Grades 1 - 3.
In addition, Esther Maleka Secondary School is still awaiting textbooks for Grade 10 Mathematics and Physical Science," it said.
"While we have only been in contact with a small number of schools, we fear there may still be many schools which have not received complete delivery of textbooks for 2012."
Section27 said it was mindful that the school year was almost over and most pupils had commenced their end-of-year examinations.
"We do not believe that the interests of the learners in Limpopo would be served by a third court application to compel textbook delivery in 2012," it said.
"Instead, we will focus on ensuring the timeous delivery for 2013."
The deadline for delivery of textbooks is 15 December 2013.
Spokesperson for the DBE, Hope Mokgatlhe, said the department was not aware of Section27's latest claims.
"We have a hotline set up and a website and we have not received a single complaint," Mokgatlhe said.
"The most useful thing Section27 could do is to contact us if they find out some textbooks haven't been delivered.
"It's not helping anyone by going to the media first and not sending us the reports so that we can follow them up."
- SAPA
