07 Aug 2013

The policy that requires students to return books was introduced because it was costly for government to buy books annually, Parliament has been informed.

The Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development (MoESD), Mr Patrick Masimolole said when responding to a question in Parliament on Tuesday students were given notes and revision questions to assist them prepare for examinations. He further said he was not aware of shortage of books at Montsamaisa and Goldmine junior secondary schools to an extent that four students shared a textbook in all subjects.

Mr Masimolole said there were instances where students shared what was known as supplementary books or class sets, which were not core textbooks. Some subjects, he said, did not have prescribed books because there were no books in the market. To assist students, old books which were found to be relevant to the new curriculum were provided to schools, he added.

He said consultations were ongoing with PPDAB to allow the ministry to source books directly from publishers outside the country where local market was inadequate.

MP for Francistown South, Mr Wynter Mmolotsi, had asked the minister if he was aware that due to shortage of books in schools, children were not allowed to carry textbooks to upper classes at junior certificate level and also wanted to know how the students were expected to revise for examinations without books from lower classes.

He had also asked if the minister was aware that shortage of books at Montsamaisa and Goldmine was such that on average four students shared a text book in all subjects.

MP Mmolotsi also wanted to know if the minister was aware that some subjects still have no prescribed textbooks even after four years into new curriculum and what was the cause for this and what the students were using in the meantime. ENDS