Pretoria - The Western Cape Education Department has activated its online ordering system for purchasing textbooks in order to ensure that orders are delivered to schools on time for the start of the 2014 school year.
The facility was introduced as a pilot in 2011 and launched in all schools in 2012. Following the success of the 2012 textbook procurement process, the department said it would again use this system this year.
The electronic system was implemented to increase the efficiency of the textbook procurement process, allowing the department to monitor textbook orders, deliveries and shortages.
The system also offers schools a choice of textbooks from the national catalogues of the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) approved textbooks, while also making it as easy as possible to place orders online.
MEC Donald Grant said that schools have been notified to capture their orders for CAPS-aligned textbooks in Grades 7 - 9 and Grade 12 by 14 June 2013 to ensure that their orders are processed timeously.
“In order to assist educators to make informed decisions about the textbooks they wish to order for the 2014 school year, the department arranged for textbook exhibitions in each education district in May.
“At the exhibitions, all the CAPS aligned textbooks that are included in the catalogues for 2014 were on display, giving educators, specifically subject heads, the opportunity to determine which books are most suitable in enhancing the delivery of the curriculum in their classrooms,” Grant said.
Schools have been issued notices on how the procurement process for 2014 will work, with the relevant dates, deadlines and procedures.
In Grades 7 - 9, Grant explained, the subjects requiring textbooks include Home Language, First Additional Language, Mathematics, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Creative Arts, Technology and Economic Management Sciences.
Learners in Grade 12 will receive textbooks in Home Language, First Additional Language, Mathematics, Mathematical Literacy and three additional textbooks which are in line with their subject needs.
The final stage of the plan will cost R175.8 million. Over R277 million has already been invested in the first two phases, with the total cost of R452.8 million over a three-year period.
“This is over and above the textbook component of the per capita norms and standards funding supplied to all our schools. Altogether, this is a very substantial investment, but it is certainly worth it in supporting our teachers and learners in the delivery of the curriculum,” he noted.
Grant appealed to schools to take this process seriously and adhere to the deadlines for ordering set by the department.
The department hopes that the textbooks ordered are delivered to schools by November, which will give schools enough time to report any wrong deliveries, shortages or errors before the end of the school year, as well as complete their arrangements for book distribution within their school. – SAnews.gov.za
