Millions of primary school pupils have still not received their basic literacy and numeracy workbooks - despite the books being described as the most effective tool for teaching by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga.

The delays in supplying the essential teaching aids are causing panic among some school principals, particularly in rural areas, who say that crucial teaching time is being lost.

Granville Whittle, the basic education spokesman, said that about 37% of the 11.8million workbooks had not been delivered to 19000 schools by Friday, almost two weeks into the school term for inland schools.

The first batch of basic literacy and numeracy workbooks, with an average of 155 pages for Grade 1 to 6 pupils, was to have been delivered to schools by January 5, a week before the school year started.

But Whittle denied yesterday that there had been a January 5 deadline for delivery, saying that the department "always thought that we would be able to complete delivery within a 10-day period after the opening of schools, given the fluidity of learner numbers in schools until the 10th day of term".

But, in a response to inquiries by The Times on December 9 about the awarding of the tender for the printing of the workbooks, Whittle said "as stipulated in the bid document, Workbook 1 will be distributed to all primary schools one week before the opening of school in January 2011".

Whittle said yesterday that the department hoped to have concluded the delivery of workbooks by the end of this month.

Stephen van der Walt, CEO of Paarl Media, one of the companies awarded tenders for printing the books late last year, said that the "enormous task" of printing them was "on track".

Van der Walt said that "once the tender had been put together, a timetable was established [in collaboration with the department]".

"You can't deliver to 19, 000 schools in that space of time in any country."

Last year, The Times reported that the tender for the R300-million workbooks project was awarded to a consortium that included Lebone Litho Printers, Paarl Media printers and On the Dot logistics.

The initial budget allocated by the Treasury for the workbooks was R750-million but the department said it had saved money by developing content itself

The tender for the books was not finalised until December 7, about a month before the new school year.

Whittle attributed delays in the printing of the books to changes the department had made to "the pagination of some of the books for pedagogic [educational] reasons".

He said that deliveries had been hampered by flood damage to roads and school infrastructure

Before inland schools opened, on 12 January, Motshekga said her department had made "great strides" towards ensuring the success of the workbooks project.

"These are high-quality books created by the department at half the original cost," said Motshekga.

But principals of primary schools to whom The Times spoke yesterday said they were starting to "panic" because they still had not received their workbooks.

Andries Makalela, principal of Agonkitse Primary, a rural school about 75km from Rustenburg, in North West, said his teachers were being forced to "improvise" because the school had not received its workbooks.

"We have a mandate from the department: according to our work schedule, those books must be included in teaching," Makalele said.

Principals at 11 of the 13 primary schools to which The Times spoke yesterday, in Free State, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and Limpopo, had not received their workbooks.

Walter Hlaise, Mpumalanga secretary of the SA Democratic Teachers' Union, confirmed yesterday that some schools in the province had not received their workbooks.

Hlaise said the unavailability of books was a particularly severe problem in Mpumalanga because the province was "very rural, and the only access learners have to information is through books".

Graeme Bloch, an independent education analyst, said yesterday that the failure to provide workbooks was "unacceptable".

"The [school] day should start and have an effective start. That's part of how you learn discipline and keeping time.

"It's almost as important as the academic curriculum," said Bloch.