Education Report 2015

The National Further Education and Training (FET) Literature Catalogue has been developed, approved and sent to provinces. After due consultation, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) has decided that Grade 11 must be implemented in 2016, Grade 12 in 2017 and Grade 10 in 2018.

It is believed that implementation of Grade 11 in 2016 will adequately prepare learners for implementation of Grade 12 in 2017 as this will be the same cohort of learners who will be sitting for 2017 National Senior Certificate (NSC). “The DBE has received reports that some provinces were prepared to procure set works for Grades 10, 11 and 12 or for two grades at most. The DBE requests provinces and schools to procure for Grade 10 as well. The funds for the subsequent years may be used to procure additional essential Learning and Teaching Support Material (LTSM).” See Circular S13 of 2015 dated 22 July 2015. The Grade R National Catalogue is completed. The Integrated Grade R pack is designed to cater for a single class of 40 learners. The set comprises 40 Readers, 20 Posters, 4 Big Books, 1 Story Anthology with 40 stories and 1 Integrated Teacher’s Guide. The Integrated Teacher’s Guide assists the teacher:

• By providing daily lesson plans for the year.
• To set up an effective Grade R classroom.
• To ensure proper resources are available.

Central Region

The Ndabase tender has been awarded for three years. Members were all concerned about the pressure being put on the schools to buy from Ndabase. The prices on their catalogue are the negotiated prices, and delivery costs are added, but the schools do not always know this and they expect us to supply at the listed prices, which are our cost prices.

Eastern Region

The Stationery Tender is for two years, 2015 and 2016. This tender was allocated to manufacturers and some booksellers. Some manufacturers delivered themselves, which excluded booksellers. LTSM was supplied from a central warehouse. Very few booksellers were involved with the distribution. The distribution only ended for some booksellers in July 2015 because of logistical problems encountered by the Department of Education. Some booksellers still have money owed to them by schools, with no assistance from the Department of Education. There are a few opportunities for booksellers / stationers and future diversity is the name of the game. Technology is clearly moving fast and we are to be flexible to change. We must adopt the changes, plan, focus and face challenges collectively and where possible strengthen relationships with the Department of Education. The Department of Education is centralizing per province and working towards nationalization. The recent LTSM tender closed on 12/6/2015. Five provinces were included, whilst four already had ongoing tenders / contracts in place, but are not allowed to be renewed. Nationalize all by 2018. By 2018 all provincial tenders will be completed. It seems that the Eastern Cape would like schools to procure their own stationery, but they cannot oppose National. In Cofimvaba, Eastern Cape, pilot schools already have tablets, and are experiencing this technology. According to PASA’s Sales Survey for the period 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015 R1 550 112 937.00 was spent on LTSM.

The amount per province:

• Gauteng: R375,5m
• KZN: R346,6m
• Limpopo: R223,2m
• Eastern Cape: R182,3m
• North West: R164,0m
• Western Cape: R150,4m
• Free State: R42,9m
• Northern Cape: R35,8m
• Mpumalanga: R29,3m

Provincial Departments of Education (i.e. Provinces) made plans to procure learning materials in August 2015 although there are budgetary challenges. Most of the nine provinces are expected
to procure literature books (mainly Grade 11) and Grade R.

Hentie Gericke