Friday 07 February

14 DECEMBER 2012

15 December 2012 marks the deadline for the delivery of textbooks to Limpopo schools for Grades 4, 5, 6 and 11 for 2013. This court-imposed deadline follows a failure by the Department of Basic Education and the Limpopo Department of Education to deliver textbooks to Limpopo schools for most of the 2012 academic year. Grades 4, 5, 6 and 11 will be starting the CAPS syllabus next year.

In terms of the court order SECTION27 is due to receive a report on delivery tomorrow, 15 December 2012 which must indicate whether all textbooks have been delivered and, to the extent that delivery is not complete, what steps will be taken to ensure complete delivery by the start of the school year. A copy of the DBE’s affidavit in this regard is attached.

SECTION27 has been in touch with 14 schools across the Vhembe and Mopani Districts in Limpopo. While many schools have reported that they have received their full complement of textbooks for 2013 for Grades 4, 5, 6 and 11, some schools continue to report outstanding textbooks. Nonetheless we commend the Department of Basic Education for its efforts to comply with the Court order and to ensure that this year’s textbooks crisis is not repeated in 2013.

However, we are concerned at reports that while books for Grades 4,5,6 and 11 have been delivered to many schools, most schools are still awaiting textbooks for the remaining Grades. While these Grades were not part of the court deadline, their books must still be delivered before the first day of school next year to ensure that there are no interruptions in learners’ education.

We remain hopeful that the outstanding textbooks for 2013 will be delivered before 7 January 2013.

Together with the Legal Resources Centre, the Centre for Child Law, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies and Equal Education Law Centre, SECTION27 has placed advertisements advising schools to report book shortages (https://section27.org.za_old.dedi47.cpt1.host-h.net/2012/12/14/have-you-received-your-textbooks-and-workbooks-for-2013/) and we will be monitoring the state of delivery of all learner teacher support materials (LTSM) in all provinces for 2013. School governing bodies, parents, teachers, learners and community members are encouraged to inform us of any shortages in LTSM, as well as notifying the Department of Basic Education and the relevant provincial departments of education of these shortages.

ENDS#

For more information contact Mark Heywood on 083 634 8806 or Nikki Stein on 082 528 7232

press statement – update of textbook delivery 14 Dec 2012

DBE textbooks affidavit 14 Dec 2012

DBE textbooks affidavit 14 Dec 2012 part 2