Five grades of pupils in Limpopo are without textbooks for the year, the DA said on Wednesday.
Democratic Alliance spokeswoman Annette Lovemore said she visited secondary schools in the province to find out what problems they had.
“A new curriculum for Grades R, One, Two, Three and 10 has been introduced in 2012 and is prescriptive and textbook dependent,” she said.
“In Limpopo, the major concern is the fact that textbooks for the new curriculum have not been ordered, five months into the new school year.”
At Serutle High School, teachers had told her that, given the absence of textbooks, the standard of the Grade 10 exams would probably be lowered this year to allow students to pass more easily.
Lovemore said the school had only copies of promotional textbooks left there by the publishers.
“Teachers were forced to make copies of the promotional copies which were full of gaps and errors.”
She said teachers at Tubake Senior Secondary “are drawing together material from workbooks and last year's old textbooks in an attempt to reflect the new syllabus.”
Both schools are in the Lepelle-Nkumpi Municipality.
“With a pass rate of 36 percent in 2011, these teachers are concerned that their attempts may be fruitless in preparing students to meet the requirements of exams and improve the pass rate,” she said.
Lovemore said education MEC Namane Dickson Masemola had blamed the lack of books on insufficient funding from the national department.
Limpopo education department spokesman Patrick Kgomo could not be immediately reached for comment. - Sapa