School books late again

By Charl du Plessis

Education Department fails to meet deadline for delivery of specifications

Millions of primary and high school pupils face the possibility of yet another disastrous school year because the Department of Basic Education has given publishers only six months in which to develop new textbooks for 2012.

A series of missed deadlines, and the department's indecisiveness about the content of the textbooks, is likely to tarnish the 2012 school year.

Publishing houses, whose employees spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity this week, said it normally takes about 18 months to develop the content of a high-quality textbook, but the Department of Basic Education had given them only six months to produce the books , including teacher handbooks and exercise material, in all subjects, for Grade 1 to Grade 3, and Grade 10.

"When processes like this are rushed, compromises have to be made in editorial content," said a senior manager at one of the major publishing companies.

The new textbooks were commissioned in line with the announcement by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga last year that outcomes-based education would be phased out in favour of a new curriculum

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