Isn’t it sad that the headline “Give us our textbooks, East Cape schools plead” fails to move readers any more? Not because our readers do not care, but because it no longer has shock value. In other words, it reflects the norm and is no longer surprising, particularly in the Eastern Cape.
Despite an order from the high court in Makhanda early in March to ensure that all pupils at all public schools in the province were provided with textbooks and stationery by no later than March 31, the education department has failed to do so.
Is anyone surprised?
This story has been told countless times — year-in and year-out, the situation remains unchanged and the biggest losers in this painful cycle of incompetence are the pupils.
A snap survey by the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA (Naptosa) of 400 schools in the province revealed that 113 of those that responded by Friday had not received textbooks.
And at least 26 of the 115 schools that did receive learning material complained of not being supplied with the correct quantity.
The department had been hauled before the court by the Khula Development Forum, which was concerned that scores of pupils at schools across the province were still without learning materials as the end of the first term approached.
The forum was represented by the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), which launched an urgent court application, arguing that the department’s failure to provide textbooks was an infringement of pupils’ rights.
That even a court order could not compel the education department to do its job is extremely concerning.
It is also further evidence of the disdain with which citizens are treated by the government.
The right of pupils to quality education is enshrined in the constitution, but do our lawmakers and custodians of those laws care? Evidently not.
Education MEC Fundile Gade must explain to the pupils and their parents why he should continue to preside over a department that is failing to ensure children receive quality education.
If he cannot do so, heads must roll, starting with his own.
HeraldLIVE