Pupils without textbooks

Published May 26, 2015

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Francesca Villette and Raphael Wolf

AN INVESTIGATION has been launched by the provincial education authorities to determine why, nearly halfway through the 2015 academic year, pupils of at least two city schools still do not have the textbooks they need in preparation for their exams.

And more schools may have the same problem.

Last week about 200 pupils from Maitland High School marched to the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) offices in the CBD to demand that they be given textbooks.

Yesterday, Gordon High School in Somerset West spoke of the same concern as the academic year had almost reached the halfway mark.

WCED spokesperson Paddy Attwell said it was still investigating why Maitland High had experienced a textbook shortage. Its district office was also investigating why Gordon High School was experiencing the same problem, Attwell said.

“It is possible that more schools are falling short. However, we are only aware of these two incidents,” Attwell said.

Class tests for Maitland High pupils have been postponed until pupils have received textbooks.

The WCED said in January that it was the schools’ responsibility to order enough books.

Education MEC Debbie Schäfer said the majority of the textbooks were delivered before the end of the 2014 school year and that any outstanding textbooks would have been delivered in January.

Shelver said top-up orders would be placed for unexpected growth in pupil numbers.

Gordon High principal Bernard Simons confirmed the school did not have enough textbooks.

The shortage affected pupils from grades 8 to 12 and included all subjects.

“I have received a number of e-mails from one particular parent about the shortage. I explained to her that (her daughter) would receive (her) textbooks,” Simons said.

Simons said schools continually experienced a shortage of books because many former pupils failed to return them.

ANC provincial secretary Songezo Mjongile criticised the DA provincial administration for not having addressed “the apartheid legacy of Bantu education in schools”.

Mjongile said poor schools in the province were overlooked and this impacted on their academic performance.

Provincial DA spokesperson Liza Albrecht, when asked to comment, said the party would support the WCED in its comments on the matter. She said the issue was not political.

Equal Education provincial deputy chairperson Ntuthuzo Ndzomo said textbook shortages in the province were not a new phenomenon. Ndzomo said every year pupils were without textbooks at the start of the school year.

In March, nearly 700 pupils from Philippi Secondary School, who were being taught in shipping containers, protested peacefully outside the WCED headquarters, demanding that the department build a proper school.

Ndzomo said while this matter had been reported in the media, very little was mentioned about some Philippi Secondary pupils who did not have textbooks.

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