The go-slow by members of the SA Democratic Teachers Union in the Eastern Cape is affecting the delivery of workbooks to schools in the province.
That's according to the Department of Basic Educaton in a statement on Monday.
The Department says about 70% of workbooks for the 2012 academic year have been delivered to public schools across the country.
The Education Department was responding to a Mail and Guardian report which suggested that 70% of public schools countrywide did not have workbooks.
The department says it has always scheduled to complete delivery of the workbooks by the third week of the first term in all provinces.
The full statement follows below:
Media statement issued by the DBE regarding the delivery of workbooks for the 2012 academic year, 06 February 2012
The Department of Basic Education would like to clarify the issue of a perceived delay in the delivery of workbooks for the 2012 academic year.
The Department has always scheduled to complete delivery of the workbooks by the third week of the first term in all provinces. Thus far 70% of workbooks have been delivered, contrary to the claims made in the Mail and Guardian, 03 February 2012.
This year, there has been a massive increase in the number of workbooks for learners from 24 million distributed in 2011 to 54 million to 26 000 schools in 2012.
This extraordinary intervention demonstrates the Department’s commitment to strengthen learners’ achievement in the critical skills of literacy/language and numeracy/mathematics.
It must also be emphasised that workbooks will be delivered in two tranches – the first workbooks cover the first and second terms’ learning outcomes and the second delivery, in July, will cover the learning outcomes for the third and fourth terms.
This massive undertaking has involved the services of content developers and layout and design teams working overtime and late into 2011 in order to ensure the completion of these exceptional products.
In addition, as part of the Department’s determination to strengthen learner achievement in Mathematics and Science, textbooks for these subjects are being distributed to some 2, 169 million learners to all grade 10s and Grade 11 and 12 learners where necessary.
In order to keep down delivery costs, the decision was taken to make only one delivery drop per school.
This was due to the fact that the Department made the decision, in conjunction with Provincial Heads of Department and MECs, to increase the number of workbooks up to Grade 9 in literacy/language and numeracy/mathematics, to include workbooks for First Additional Language for Grades 1-6 and Life Skills for Grades 1-3, as well as translation of the above into Braille of workbooks for grades 1-4 in English and Afrikaans.
All workbooks are being delivered to provinces according to the agreed to schedules. Provincial departments of Education have informed schools of the revised delivery schedules. However, in the case of Limpopo and Mpumalanga, delivery in some parts of the provinces has been disrupted as a result of the damage to roads due to the ongoing floods.
The go-slow in the Eastern Cape has also affected delivery in that province.
Schools have been requested to contact their district offices to make arrangements for additional books to be supplied if shortages are experienced. Each district has received additional workbooks to address any reported shortages in schools.
Our schools, particularly in urban provinces, experience increases in learner numbers that cannot be predicted at the beginning of the year due to urban migration, even though learner numbers in each school were verified in 2011 in order to expedite delivery of sufficient books and to avoid the shortfalls experienced in 2011.
It must also be emphasised, however, that the workbooks are meant to supplement textbooks in order to strengthen learning and teaching in the classroom. They are not a replacement for textbooks. It is thus unacceptable that schools can suggest that no learning and teaching can take place until the workbooks arrive.
