Johannesburg - The basic education department will approach the Constitutional Court to appeal against a ruling over the delivery of school textbooks in Limpopo.
“I can confirm that we are appealing the judgment,” department spokeswoman Troy Martens said on Monday.
On May 5, the High Court in Pretoria ruled that the department violated pupils' rights to education by failing to deliver textbooks in the province.
At the time, City Press quoted Judge Neil Tuchten as saying pupils' rights to education were violated because the department did not ensure that all of them had their textbooks before the beginning of the school year.
Basic Education For All (Befa) took the department to court, supported by civil rights group Section27, because not all Limpopo pupils had received their textbooks for this year.
The department promised to deliver textbooks it had failed to deliver since 2012 by June 6. Befa and Section27 had asked for a court order to this effect.
Chris Erasmus SC, for the department, previously argued that only about 2.2 percent of the seven million textbooks had not been delivered because the schools reported shortages late or failed to report them at all. - Sapa