Nobel writer scorns S.Africa education as ‘a wreck’

Nobel literature prize winner Nadine Gordimer poured scorn on South Africa’s education system on Tuesday as “a wreck” over the failure to deliver textbooks to thousands of public schools, the AFP reports. The scandal has caused a national furor after leaving more than 5,000 rural schools without textbooks for more than six months of the academic year in a damning measure of South Africa’s schooling 18 years into democracy.

“Our education system is a wreck. It’s a shamble. I can’t believe that three-quarters of the year have gone by and so many of our schools, especially in the rural areas, have been without textbooks,” said Gordimer, 88, on SAFM public radio news.

“It is the (education) minister’s responsibility to see that the books are ordered in time and delivered. How can you teach people to read if there are no books to read from?”…Read More

S.Africa claims delivery of books in schools fiasco

South Africa’s education department on Thursday claimed it had supplied nearly all missing textbooks to 5,000 public schools as ordered by a court but doubts remained that the fiasco was over, the AFP reports. A High Court last month gave the basic education ministry until June 15 to supply the missing textbooks and to set up a remedial programme to help students make up for lost time. The department said 99 percent of books had reached over 5,000 schools that have gone without material for half a year in northern Limpopo province as ordered by the court which said the pupils’ constitutional right to education had been violated.

“However, we fear that some of these reports may not accurate,” said public interest legal centre SECTION27 which brought the court action, saying their feedback did not tally with that of the government…

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