Schools in Eastern Cape are not yet ready to welcome pupils as they are yet to receive learning and teaching support material (LTSM).
A number of educators from various schools voiced their frustrations as they said pupils might have to buy their own learning material.
An official at Nombewu Senior Secondary in Cofimvaba said they don't know what will happen when the schools reopen in the coastal province next week.
“It's going to be a struggle for learners who will have to start schooling without learning material. This happened last year and the school only managed to get learning material two days after we had closed for the first semester,” he said.
An official from Ngcobo Senior Secondary said it was a shock that the material was not delivered before the closure of schools in December.
“The LTSM was centralised by the government, so no-one can say it's the school's fault. We can't even expect parents to buy the stationery because they know their children get it from school. It's sad that we don't have any direction from the department,” said the official.
Another official from Xolilizwe Senior Secondary in Nqandu, outside Dutywa, said the school had only received top-up material from 2021.
“We will just try and distribute it evenly to all the learners. However, this means that if a learner usually gets three exercise books, they will now get one and buy the other two,” he said.
EC education spokesperson Mali Mtima said the department still has to present the state of readiness report to education parliamentary portfolio today before they can comment on the matter.
National Professional Teacher's Organisation of South Africa provincial secretary Loyiso Mbinda said procurement for the order of LTSM was only done two weeks before the closure of schools.
“On December 15 most companies had already closed for the holidays. And those companies recently opened which might cause delay in the delivery of the LTSM. Another challenge is that the procurement of LTSM is still centralised and there were fights to have it decentralised,” Mbinda said.
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