By Mandla Khoza
Mbombela - The Mpumalanga Education Department has set aside more than R450 million of its R14.8 billion to buy textbooks and stationery.
Department MEC Reginah Mhaule made the announcement when she was presenting her 2013/2014 budget at the provincial legislature on Tuesday.
"This year, R451 million has been set aside to procure textbooks for the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) in grades 7, 8, 9 and 12 as well as stationery," said Mhaule.
Mhaule said the department was determined to ensure that each pupil has the required Learning and Teaching Support Material (LTSM) on time.
"I need to emphasise that the life span of a textbook is four to five years and as such it is not feasible that we should procure them year in year out. However, we need to pay special attention to the retrieval of textbooks in our schools," she said.
She said the department also intends to provide more support material and resources through its QIDS-UP programme for no fee primary schools.
"We have set aside R3 million towards this purpose. Sixteen schools will receive computer laboratories from the QIDS-UP programme this year.
"In addition, the department has set aside R2 million for the (implementation) of the Mobile Library Service to promote literacy and reading to remote rural schools that are yet to receive such fixed services," Mhaule said.
The MEC said teachers would not be left out.
"Teachers are the backbone of any curriculum delivery mechanisms and as such they need to be capacitated on an ongoing basis to equip them to face the challenging aspect of their day-to-day responsibilities," she said.
She said R4.8 million has been set aside to upgrade teachers who are required to meet the Relative Education Qualification Values 14 and to improve the maths and science skills base.
She said the department has also set aside R15 million to capacitate all Senior and FET phase teachers as well as school management teams on CAPS management.
"The CAPS training will take place during the June and September 2013 school holidays. The department will be working with teacher unions to deliver this programme as per the Memorandum of understanding signed," said Mhaule.
Mhaule added that since the start of the CAPS 22 programme 120 educators have been trained to date.
"We will further strengthen our teacher development initiative by recapitalising 15 Education Development Centres to provide refresher courses to educators. An amount of R3 million has been set aside for this task," said Mhaule. – SAnews.gov.za
