Basic Education Department disappointed with South African Human Rights Commission statement
The Department of Basic Education has noted with disappointment the media statement issued by the South Afican Human Rights Commission (SAHRC). It is extremely unfortunate that the Commission has chosen to communicate with the Minister of Basic Education through a media statement instead of engaging the department directly.
The commission could have benefited immensely from factual correctness and other crucial information related to the matter had it consulted with the department or the Limpopo Education Department.
We have always cooperated with the Commission in all previous occasions and we consider it an important institution for the advancement of our constitution. It came as a shock to read via the media that the Minister had been given a deadline to make an undertaking about a task which the province was already handling.
It is therefore unclear what the motive is for communicating with the department via the media.
The judge in the North Gauteng High Court in 2015, during court proceedings in the matter referred to by SAHRC, encouraged more dialogue between the Commission and the department. As a result the department will request a meeting with the Commission to discuss the matter.
As a matter of fact the delays relate only to stationery and not textbooks. The Limpopo education department has since issued a media statement to provide an explanation for the delay which are linked to procurement processes.
Since 2012 more than R2 billion has been spent on the provisioning of learner teacher material in Limpopo only. Every year the department delivers supplementary material to augment what has already been delivered to schools.
It must be made clear that the provincial education department is not delivering new sets of textbooks but only top ups to certain schools where shortages were reported as a result of lost textbooks or increase in learner enrollment.
The province has publicly committed to complete delivery of stationery to all schools by 26 January 2017.
We suggest the Commission should rather join the department in spreading the message to learners and parents about the importance of returning textbooks at the end of every school year.
This would contribute to an increase in the retrieval of textbooks which the incoming learners in the grade would need to use. This means the department wouldn't need to spend millions annually replacing textbooks that have already been provided for.
Enquiries:
Elijah Mhlanga
Cell: 083 580 8275
Troy Martens
Cell: 079 899 3070
