Textbook delivery ‘in deep crisis’

The education portfolio committee in the Eastern Cape legislature has accused senior education officials of presenting false reports on the state of readiness of schools for the 2017 academic year. This comes after the members found schools with no stationery and textbooks during its visits despite the department claiming that only a few schools had not received textbooks when schools reopened on January 11. Committee chairman Fundile Gade said yesterday that in some areas such as Ngcobo and Mthatha they found pupils who did not even have exercise books to write in two weeks into the new school year. The worst case was at Mbizana, where the entire district had not received a single book for the year. “The department must stop giving flouted reports which do not give full detail of the problems faced by the department,” Gade said. “This is a clear sign that learner material management is in deep crisis.”

Gade said the committee had been made aware of possible delays only on January 10, but that it was led to believe that the books would be delivered the following week. Education spokesman Malibongwe Mtima said the department was aware of the delays. He attributed this to the fact that procurement processes were only concluded late last year. Mtima said the delivery of outstanding learner and teacher support material has been accelerated to make up for the delay. He said the department had increased capacity in warehouses in the province to ensure that sorting and packing of the material happened much faster than usual. “The operations in all our warehouses have been heightened to ensure that schools receive their textbooks as soon as possible,” he said.