Department of Education Extranet

100% RETRIEVAL OF TEXTBOOKS

The Northern Cape Department of Education (NCDOE) strives to ensure that learning and teaching takes place from day one when schools reopen in January 2023. The Department regards Learning and Teaching Support Material (LTSM) resources as essential to the effective running of our education system. Furthermore, these resources form an integral and vital part of our education system and the effective management, utilisation and maintenance of this valuable resource will ensure access and support to the delivery of quality education for our learners.

Schools issue textbooks to learners at the beginning of each year. Learners who receive the textbooks are issued with loan forms. Parents/guardians must ensure that the loan forms are completed and signed for all the LTSM which are issued to the learners. It is the responsibility of both the learner and parent/guardian to ensure that the LTSM loaned to learners are kept in a good condition and returned to the school when required. Some schools prefer to retrieve textbooks on a quarterly basis as that will give them an idea of the number of books which are lost or damaged.

LTSM retrieval for the Northern Cape Department of Education is a serious matter aimed at ensuring that  state resources are used efficiently and effectively. Too many learners are not accepting accountability in terms of preserving LTSM allocated to them. Many schools and educators perceive and accept damaged and non-return of LTSM  as a given and therefore do not consider the exercise of retrieving such material as serious. Furthermore the retrieval rate impacts on the already constrained budget allocations and the quality of education.

As the 2022 school academic year speedily draws to a close, the Department wants to call on all role players and the community at large to join the 100% RETRIEVAL OF TEXTBOOKS campaign and would like to remind all learners to return textbooks for the benefit of other learners in the Province.

The provision of textbooks for every learner in the schooling system is one of the priorities of Government and millions of rands are spent annually on LTSM. The Department has committed that every learner must have a core textbook for every subject in every Grade. If this resource is not protected and valued, money which otherwise could have been used for new innovative LTSM has to be used to replace books which are retained at homes and in the community, not being utilised.

Learners are encouraged to take good care of the textbooks. Parents are requested to honour their responsibility in ensuring that their children act responsibly and ensure that ALL textbooks loaned to their child are returned before the end of the 2022 academic year.

Principals of schools are required to ensure that maximum (100%) retention of textbooks is achieved. This calls for an effective textbook retrieval system at every school in the Province.

The Department issued Circular 45 of 2020 to guide schools on the retention of all LTSM in schools and retrieval of textbooks issued to learners. A reporting regime from schools will allow the Provincial Department to assess the retrieval rate at the end of the year.

This campaign is aimed at all citizens, those in and out of school to ensure a strong culture of returning textbooks is emphasized. This is a societal issue. Let us ensure 100% retrieval of textbooks in the Northern Cape for 2022.

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