Textbooks lesson still not learnt as pupils still go without

The courts keep ordering education authorities to get textbooks into classrooms, but some Limpopo pupils are again writing exams having been deprived of the basic tools of learning, writes Prega Govender

Studying for his Grade 11 final exams at SDW Nxumalo Secondary School in Ngomungomu village in Limpopo has been a nightmare for Nyiko Mahlawuli because he had a textbook for only one subject, Tsonga.

The 17-year-old, who has set his sights on studying mechanical engineering after matric, has struggled through the academic year without textbooks for six other subjects.

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But Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga insists that her department cannot possibly ensure that every pupil has a textbook for every subject.

Her argument is contained in court papers supporting her bid to have the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein set aside a ruling in May last year by the High Court in Pretoria .

In that high court ruling, Judge Neil Tuchten found that the nondelivery of prescribed textbooks to some pupils in Limpopo was a violation of their right to education.

He ordered Motshekga and her director-general, as well as Limpopo's education MEC and the acting head of the department, to deliver textbooks required by pupils in grades 7, 8, 9 and 12 in the province's public schools by May 8, and to those in other grades by June 6 last year.

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Motshekga's argument to the appeal court when the case is heard later this month will be that although she and her director-general, were and are committed to "provide a textbook in every subject and grade to each learner, perfection is not the constitutional standard.

"Therefore it follows that the court should not have intervened simply because 'perfection' has not been attained."

The school governing bodies of 18 schools and a community-based organisation known as Basic Education for All - formed in 2012 in response to the textbook crisis in Limpopo - had applied for the order directing the national and provincial education departments to deliver textbooks.

In the appeal court documents, Motshekga and the other appellants state: "Basic Education for All and the school governing bodies attempted to impose on the appellants a standard of perfection, namely, that every learner must be in possession of textbooks in every subject, in every grade, and in every language.

"The contention of Basic Education for All and the school governing bodies that perfection is the standard, as also found by the court, is with respect wrong.

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"What is required of an organ of state such as the Department of Basic Education is to take reasonable measures in order to fulfil the right to basic education."

The documents state: "To say that the appellants, and specifically the Department of Basic Education in particular, have taken reasonable steps to realise the right to basic education is an understatement.

"The appellants have demonstrated to the court in minute detail the careful planning, procurement, distribution and delivery of textbooks to schools in Limpopo."

Motshekga and the other appellants argue in court papers that textbooks were "only one of the instruments utilised in order to promote basic education to learners".

"To equate a shortage of textbooks as a failure to provide basic education is a fallacy," they contend.

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Basic Education for All argues in its submission that the right to basic education is an individual right and that every pupil is entitled to "the wherewithal required for a basic education".

"Every learner who does not have all the textbooks required for a basic education suffers a violation of his or her constitutional right.

"The appellants' failure to ensure full textbook delivery to schools in Limpopo constitutes a perpetuation of the legacy of unequal education and the distorted resource allocation patterns," Basic Education for All argues in court papers.

Basic Education for All says the authorities had blamed school principals for not reporting textbook shortages, but " the state's attempt to shift the blame to principals is contradicted by the evidence from 39 schools which shows they had reported their shortages to the state".

The organisation says it is common cause that, as at April last year, the state had "short delivered" at least 793567 textbooks to pupils at public schools in Limpopo.

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Institutions that experienced textbook shortages included:

• Tshehlwaneng Senior Secondary: 6185 too few books;
• Tshabadietla Secondary School: 2222;
• Thorometsane Primary: 1202; and
• Tswetlane Primary: 710.

Prior to Basic Education for All's 2014 court application, Section 27, a public interest law centre, had secured three separate judgments in 2012 ordering both the Department of Basic Education and the Limpopo education department to deliver textbooks to the province's schools.

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