Government avails 4 million textbooks

THE Government in partnership with Unicef has availed four million textbooks in the country's primary schools as part of efforts to bridge the educational resource gap in the new curriculum.

Stakeholders in the education sector have been complaining about the lack of adequate reading material that speaks to the Government's commitment to the implementation of the new curriculum. In an interview with Sunday News, Primary and Secondary Education Deputy Minister Edgar Moyo said the Government was in the process of distributing textbooks so as to address the competence-based curriculum.

"The textbooks will help the children have proper learning materials for the effective implementation of the competence-based curriculum. The Government in partnership with Unicef and other partners has managed to procure four million textbooks which will be distributed as soon as information for their distribution is attained within the districts," said Moyo.

He also said the procurement process was being done in three phases where a total of 2 340 000 learners textbooks and 72 200 teachers' guides were procured and distributed under phase one in July this year.

"The textbooks are being distributed in three phases. The first phase that was done in July comprised books for ECD A, Grade One and Grade Three. The ones that have been acquired now are under phase two which consists of the ECD B, Grade Two and Grade Four classes. The textbooks are already in the warehouse, what is left is the distribution and once we are done we start working on acquiring books for the phase three pupils which consists of the Grade 5 and 6 classes," he said.

Director of Curriculum Development Unit (CDU) Dr Arthur Makanda said the distribution of the textbooks was going to be done in the spirit of fairness with schools in the rural areas getting their share in the different phases of textbook acquisition.

"Books are going to be distributed in all schools in the country. There is not going to be any special treatment as we want to ensure we plug all the loopholes in the new education curriculum. We want to make sure that schools in the rural communities, Government schools and even those in resettlement areas have proper learning material which concurs with the new curriculum.

"Plans for acquiring primary school science kits and agriculture kits are still underway with these meant to support the teaching of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)," said Dr Makanda.

Recently the Cabinet approved the Education Amendment Bill, which will guarantee the right to State funded education at primary and secondary level and also the provision of special education facilities for the disabled.