The Sunday News
Precious Maphosa, Sunday News Reporter
THE Government has distributed two million textbooks to 2 615 schools at both primary and secondary schools as it moves to bridge the educational resource gap in the new curriculum.
Last year the Government in partnership with Unicef availed four million textbooks for primary schools in the country. The textbooks are being distributed in three phases. The first phase that was done in July last year comprised books for ECD A, Grade One and Grade Three. The second phase consists of the ECD B, Grade Two and Grade Four classes. Phase Three consists of the Grade Five and Six classes.
In an interview, Primary and Secondary Education Deputy Minister Cde Edgar Moyo said distribution of textbooks under Phase Two was underway.
“The Government has managed to distribute 2 340 000 books to 2 615 out of 6 000 targeted schools, both primary and secondary for Phase Two, the distribution process is still on going,” said Cde Moyo.
He also said plans for procuring books for Phase Three were underway.
“Procurement process for Phase Three has started, with pre-bidding which commenced on 21 March 2019 for Grade Five only. Grade Six books procurement process will start in July. The same number of schools will have books procured for Phase Three that is for Grade Five. The textbook procurement process is taking on board both primary and secondary schools (Secondary up to Form Four),” he said. Schools are adopting the new curriculum aimed at transforming the education system from a content-based curriculum to that grounded on both continuous assessment and public examinations. Further, the curriculum has an oriented system, where learning areas that instil national values such as self-reliance, business culture, responsible citizenship, critical global awareness, environmental stewardship, inclusiveness and tolerance have been adopted.
