MBOMBELA – The Department of Education has refuted claims by the Democratic Alliance (DA) that 71 per cent of schools in the province did not have enough work and textbooks for learners.
According to Ms Ashleigh Trichardt, head was of legislature, operations and research of the DA, 130 councillors visited more than
100 schools in the province since January 19 and conducted a survey.
She explained that these shocking statistics were revealed by a questionnaire that was handed out to all the schools. “We, however, suspect that the figure will continue to increase as more schools come forward,” she said. According to her one of the questions asked was whether the school had received enough textbooks and stationery to which 71 per cent said no.
According to the DA this problem was partly due to the appointment of a new service provider last year.
“Last year, we noted with concern that due to the education department’s late change of a service provider, schools were not given the chance to place orders themselves. The department simply used its learner data to predict the number of pupils who would need learning material this year,” Trichardt said.
In a report in Lowvelder’s possession, the Department of Education appointed Mr Bongani RainMaker for the procurement, are housing and distribution of learning and teaching support material (LTSM) for a period of three years from September 2014, while Afropulse 46 (Pty) Ltd, trading as Power Stationery had been appointed for a period of one year from September 2014 for the manufacturing, warehousing and distribution of scholastic stationery.
In the report the department confirmed the delay of LTSM orders and said it was due to the new appointment of the service provider.
“This prediction had no way of knowing how many new and late registrations each school in the province would have, how many books would be lost or damaged, and how many learners would be repeating a grade and in doing so, increase the number of books needed,” Trichardt said.
The department, however, said the huge textbooks shortages the DA announced was “simply devoid of the truth” and urged the DA to verify its findings with the department before making such unfounded allegations.
The department said that it had delivered 100 per cent of the LTSM that was ordered by the schools by November 28 last year.
According to Mr Jasper Zwane, head of communications at the department, schools were advised that should it happen that there was an increase in learner enrolment, the schools needed to place another order to supplement the delivered stationery. “Schools complied accordingly and deliveries were made in January this year,” Zwane said.
He added that the procurement of top-up textbooks which involved the replacement of damaged books for the 2014 academic year, as well as procurement of textbooks for new schools or classes for the 2015 academic year was done in February 2014 and the books were delivered to schools in March and April 2014.
“To be precise, the department only procured folklore to schools in 2014 and after the deliveries were made, schools were granted an opportunity to present their shortages which were procured and delivered from the day of schools opening in 2015.”
Zwane also said the appointment of the new agency in September 2014 did not have any negative impact in the procurement and delivery of LTSM to schools.
Lowvelder contacted various schools in the province and asked whether they were experiencing any shortages of textbooks. All of them replied that they had not received enough. Only one school said that it was not allowed to comment.
The newspaper also contacted the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools (Fedsas) where the provincial manager of Mpumalaga,
Ms Constanze van der Walt, said that they were not aware of any textbook shortages at schools at this stage.
“There might, however, be a problem with workbooks, but I am not aware of a problem with textbooks. Very strict control is implemented and even if there might be a problem here and there, the overall picture with regards to textbooks, is positive.”
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