Pretoria - Principals in Limpopo have agreed to make schools provide extra tuition on Saturdays and during the spring vacation to help the learners that were affected by the delay in the delivery of textbooks.
This follows a meeting between Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga and primary and high school principals in the Capricorn District on Wednesday.
Motshekga met with school principals in the province on two separate occasions, where they discussed a range of issues affecting performance and the provision of quality education.
The issues discussed included Learner Teacher Support Material (LTSM), stationary, nutrition, operational costs, including water and electricity bills.
Motshekga apologised for the delay in the delivery of textbooks and explained the circumstances that gave rise to the delay.
Department spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi said the principals assured them that learning and teaching had taken place in all the schools for the first six months of this year, and that workbooks on literacy, numeracy, first additional language and life skills (which had been delivered in January this year) were used, as well as the previous years' readers and materials.
"They indicated that for the Grade 10s, teachers mainly used the previous years' textbooks and included in their training on the National Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement last year was the identification of new areas and the retention of old areas," said Lesufi.
Lesufi said principals, in the main, were of the opinion that no catch-up programme arising from the non-delivery of textbooks was necessary, but there were specific areas of difficulty for which catch-up programmes were necessary.
Motshekga said the catch-up plan should address any gaps created by the non-delivery of textbooks to the foundation phase and Grade 10 learners.
In addition, principals also agreed that the enrichment programme for Grade 12 learners would continue.
The minister thanked the principals for the opportunity to interact, saying they would endeavour to address the challenges identified in the shortest time possible.
Motshekga will tomorrow meet with all Education MECs to receive reports on their preparations to procure LTSM for 2013.
