Department says it is not in charge of ‘book graveyard’

WHITE RIVER – Off a side street in KaBokweni stands a small warehouse with school textbooks still intact.

These lie among other discarded products like boxes and newspapers.

Eyewitnesses say schools in the area come here to collect books, rummaging through the paper debris to find materials that are still usable.

A guard on site says small private schools sometimes go there requesting books, but are referred to the Department of Education’s circuit office to obtain them.

The department’s communication officer Mr Gerald Sambo, denies that it is still in charge of the site at all.

“The department is not renting a warehouse located at 5 Fabric Street, KaBokweni.

The lease agreement it previously had on the said warehouse was terminated on February 29, 2012 and the facility was handed over to the owner.”

He reiterated that the department maintained a 100 per cent delivery rate of books ordered.

“Every year schools are given an opportunity to order books. If it is the year preceding the implementation of a new curriculum or the books supplied for the introduction of the new curriculum, grade or subject have outlived their lifespan, schools order 100 per cent supply.

“In other cases schools are given an opportunity to order up to 12 per cent of their enrolment to augment the textbooks they have, to replace worn-out ones or to address a growth in the number of learners.

In this case schools can order the titles they were supplied with initially.”

In February the department refuted allegations that as much as 70 per cent of schools faced shortages of learning- and teaching-support materials, explaining that schools had to place their orders by November 28, but had an opportunity to place another order to supplement the delivered stationery if they had an increase in learner enrolment, and these had been delivered by January this year.

Sambo did not comment on whether it was legal if the schools attempted to poach from the book graveyard.