The North West Executive Council (Exco) has expressed optimism that all schools across the North West Province would have received delivery of their stationery and textbooks for the 2014 academic year before schools close for the year-end holidays in November.

In assessing the progress report on the delivery of Learner Teacher Support Material to public ordinary schools in the province for the 2014 academic year during its meeting held in Mahikeng on Wednesday, Exco was satisfied that that Provincial Department of Education and Training was on track to deliver on its 2013/2014 Implementation Plan.

In terms of the plan, capturing and consolidation of requisitions for R329 million allocated for stationary and main textbooks for Grades 7, 8, 9 and 12 were completed by the end of June.

Technical problems which were experienced were resolved within a reasonable period to ensure all districts met the deadline for submission of consolidated figures to publishers.

Exco also noted that service providers have commenced with printing of exercises and bulk sourcing of items such as pens and calculators, etc for delivery of stationery to commence in the next two weeks. The delivery programme is expected to be finalised in October.

Meanwhile, Premier Thandi Modise has commented the provincial department for establishing a forum consisting of district officials that meets on a monthly basis to discuss challenges related to curriculum delivery.

The forum has assisted to obviate misinformation, communication gaps and also deal with LTSM and textbook problems experienced by schools. -TDN
Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews or @IceT_