The shortage of textbooks in Mpumalanga schools remains a crisis after the Auditor-General (AG) disputed the Department of Education’s (DoE) achieved target on Access to Textbooks for the second year in a row.
In its Annual Report 2018/2019 the Department reports that 91% of learners in Mpumalanga schools had access to textbooks. However the AG stated that due to insufficient and appropriate audit evidence, he was unable to confirm the reported achievement.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) notes this and has submitted questions to Premier Mtshweni-Tsipane to be responded to orally on 12 November.
The DA highlighted the textbook crisis in 2018, when it was revealed by the AG that only 31.26% of learners had been provided with the required textbooks, which resulted in 68.74% or 679 837 learners in Mpumalanga writing exams without having received the required textbooks in the 2017/18 financial year.
It is beyond comprehension that the department was able to achieve a 91% access to textbooks in one financial year while the department itself confirmed that new textbooks in all subjects and grades were last supplied to learners between 2011 and 2014.
The Department further acknowledged that they do not have a strategy of retrieving textbooks issued to learners.
The DA will be asking the Premier if and when last did the Mpumalanga government do a survey on how many textbooks there are per school, per subject as well as the condition of those textbooks?
The DA is concerned that government officials and political leaders are more concerned that numbers in reports look impressive instead of actually equipping learners and preparing them adequately and enabling them to reach their full potential.
The DA will continue to monitor the issue of textbooks in Mpumalanga schools to ensure that no learner is left behind.