David Macfarlane
Thousands of schoolchildren look set to start their school year in January without textbooks but provincial education departments are refusing to admit this. And although budgeted expenditure on textbooks and stationery for the coming year is R1,1-billion an increase of about 15% questions are being raised about how much of this will actually be spent and on what.
All nine provincial education departments told the Mail & Guardian this week that textbooks will be delivered to all schools by the time they open next year. But publishers of textbooks contradict this rosy view, as does the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu). It is understood problems can be expected particularly in the Eastern Cape, the Northern Province, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
Such problems have been hamstringing the annual opening of schools for years. But only two weeks ago Minister of Education Kader Asmal appeared to suggest that next year all would be well. After meeting education MECs he announced that “a report on the procurement of learning support materials for the new academic year was received”. A province-by-province list of expenditures and due dates for delivery followed with no indication that it was doubtful deadlines could be met.
A central problem is that, yet again, publishers have received orders for books very late. One publisher told the M&G it received orders from the Eastern Cape Department of Education only two weeks ago. These orders then take time to process and, depending on available stock levels, new print runs for some books have to be arranged. Printers are about to close for the year, so it will be impossible to supply all the books to schools by the time they open.
Despite this, Eastern Cape education department spokesperson Phaphama Mfenyana maintained this week that books “will definitely get to all schools in the province by January 23”. He said the department has already started delivery, will continue until Friday December 7 and resume on January 15.
Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal are also certain to be late in getting deliveries to schools, informed sources told the M&G. Yet the Gauteng education department said this week that everything will “definitely” be delivered by the time schools open: “It’s non-negotiable,” said department spokes- person Matlakala Manota-Mookang. And the KwaZulu-Natal department said that “everything is in order”.
Contrary to such claims, “In many provinces, books will probably arrive only in the second quarter [April],” says Sadtu representative Shermain Manna, “so what will be happening in classrooms till then?”
Publishers also claim that some schools spend money allocated for learning support materials on other things. So-called Section 21 schools those that, in terms of the 1996 South African Schools Act, have elected to manage their own budgets are allocated amounts for spending on books and stationery, and they do their own ordering. But in some cases, publishers say, they spend these amounts in other ways on vehicles or upgrading school buildings, for example with the result that they run out of money for textbooks.
And the real significance of the increased budget for learning support materials is in question. “Sadtu is concerned about the commitment to our children,” Manna says. “Yes, the government has said there will be R1,1-billion, but in reality what’s being spent?” So far only a quarter of the budget has been used, Sadtu claims.
Asmal’s own report to the president on the provinces in May pinpointed serious weaknesses in the entire process of managing learner support materials. The report said that none of the provinces had received all their textbooks by the end of January this year, and diagnosed “a lack of coordination across the country” in provinces’ interactions with publishers.
Some provincial departments do not require schools to tell them how much they are spending on learner support materials, Asmal’s report says. There is a “danger that … schools may divert funds to the payment of services electricity, water, etc. Some schools would then end up not purchasing books and alleging that departments have not provided” the required materials.
“Why is there not proper monitoring of the entire area by the national Department of Education?” Manna asks. “With the new curriculum, the department needs to play a far more pivotal role in implementation, rather than confine its role to policy-making.”
Meanwhile, working groups that produced the draft curriculum statement released in July reconvened on Friday to begin revising the statement. The draft was available for comment from July till October, in addition to which Asmal held public hearings on the statement in November. Professor Linda Chisholm, who chaired the team that produced the statement, says “serious and substantial comments were received from universities, unions, provinces and members of the public”. These comments will “enable us to fine-tune and edit the draft statement”, Chisholm said. She expects the process to be wrapped up within six months.
Additional reporting by Kevin Scott