A Grahamstown school principal claims that district education officials with business interests in East London and Port Elizabeth are to blame for the fact that local schools haven't got the crucial stationery supplies they need to start the academic year.
A Grahamstown school principal claims that district education officials with business interests in East London and Port Elizabeth are to blame for the fact that local schools haven't got the crucial stationery supplies they need to start the academic year.
Hungry to learn, children in oversized uniforms arrived with their parents at Tantyi Primary School as early as 7am. But the school's principal, Christopher Christian, said until stationery supplies arrived, proper teaching could not begin.
He said the problem was that officials had bypassed local service-providers. “We are a Section 20 school and have to order according to a budget. The district office of the Department of Education places the order on behalf of the school, but we have received none of the things we requested. We were told by the department to go to three service-providers, only to find out afterwards that none of the companies who quoted us is being used by the department.”
He said local service providers were being bypassed because some officials in the district office, who were not from Grahamstown, were influenced by their own business interests. “They select service providers from East London or Port Elizabeth, where they have business interests. We don't need people who are going to fill their pockets while learners suffer."
While other local schools had similar challenges, NV Cewu Public Primary School principal, Anele Ndyolashe, said although there was a shortage of learner/teacher support material, classes would begin on the first day.
“We have few textbooks for Grades 4, 5 and 6, and we are in the process of distributing excess stationery from last year,” said Ndyolashe. The biggest challenge at his school, Ndyolashe said, was water. “Kids will have a problem when they want to relieve themselves – but we have asked the municipality to fill the water tanks for drinking,” he added.
At the time of going to print Grocott's Mail had been unable to get comment from the provincial education department on the allegation that the delay in getting stationery supplies to local schools was because the business interests of departmental employees were influencing official processes.
