Pretoria: The late delivery of textbooks in Limpopo is still a major concern to government, says Cabinet.

“Cabinet has again reassured the South African public that this matter is receiving its full attention and through the implementation of section 100 1(b) in the province, all the required interventions will be made to bring a lasting solution to this matter,” read a statement issued by the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) after Cabinet’s regular meeting.

Following a meeting between Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga and primary and high school principals in the Capricorn District on 1 August, an agreement was reached for schools to 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.

Basic Education Department spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi said at the time that the principals had 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 were generally 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.

The Presidential Task Team charged with probing the matter is still working on resolving the issue.