The DA challenges the National Education Department to deliver textbooks to schools with shortages within 24 hours.
Yesterday the DA found thousands of textbooks still lying in a Polokwane warehouse.
Education Department spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi claimed to SAPA yesterday that these books are merely additional stock.
This simply cannot be the truth.
The DA is in possession of a letter from a principal apologizing to parents for the school not receiving any textbooks for core subjects.
If the Department can deliver books within 24 hours to any school in need as Mr Lesufi claimed, then why is this principal writing desperate letters to parents a month into the school year?
From our own telephonic surveys using only a small sample of schools, the DA has a further list of 56 schools in Limpopo that have not yet received all the textbooks they need.
The principals and teachers at these schools have reached out to the DA for assistance.
Given the sheer numbers of books in that warehouse, there are likely to be several hundred schools still without books that our small survey did not reach.
The first month of the school year is almost over and yet there are still schools and children without textbooks.
We cannot continue to compromise the education and futures of our children in this way. It is perpetuating historical imbalances in our education system.
We challenge the Education Department to make good on their promise of 24 hour delivery.
Mmusi Maimane, DA National Spokesperson
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Once the books are obtained some oversight will be necessary to ascertain that they are actually used and made available to the students in the classroom. While attending an open house at a school in Benton, Pennsylvania where my wife was teaching I noticed that most of the text books about the school were raggedy, damaged and outdated. I also noticed that there were a number of cabinets and bookcases about the school that were filled with new unused books. I asked the principal about this situation and he became defensive and angry at my question. Later I found out that these books were only there as an "exhibit" and on "display" for the parents, and visiting school officials. Good luck on the acquisition and use of the textbooks.