Pretoria - The Department of Basic Education has noted the court ruling made today at the North Gauteng High Court on the delivery of textbooks in Limpopo.
“The judgement also confirms what the department had been saying, that textbooks have indeed been delivered to all the schools in Limpopo. Owing to the credibility of the available data and a lack of cooperation from some school principals, who elected not to report shortages to the department, this in turn led to learners experiencing shortages,” the department said on Tuesday.
The judgement comes at a time when a further 271 000 books had been delivered to schools, including those that were part of the court action. Schools that had reported shortages are continuing to receive the books on a daily basis.
The department went further and carried out a second verification process in March 2014, in addition to the verification and audit excise which was carried out in November and December 2013.
Measures to address the shortages from the second verification exercise are already being put in place, and the department says it is confident that all legitimate shortages will be addressed.
The court has noted the department’s commitment to complete all top up deliveries as soon as possible.
“The department will continue to ensure that every learner in every school has a textbook. It is, however, critical to ensure that schools check and report shortages promptly to the department, so as to enable the swift delivery of top up textbooks,” the department said. – SAnews.gov.za
