Chronicle
7 Oct 2010
Chronicle Reporter
THE printing of textbooks for secondary schools will face further delays because donors have not yet released funds, the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, David Coltart, said yesterday.
Speaking in a telephone interview, Minister Coltart said there were outstanding finances from donors, a situation that is delaying the start of the exercise.
Minister Coltart said printing of textbooks for secondary schools was initially supposed to start before the end of the year, with distribution set to begin early next year.
Nine countries, which he declined to name, had promised to bankroll the exercise.
He said two of the donors engaged by the ministry were yet to release funding towards printing of the textbooks, hence the delay in the start of the exercise.
“We have not yet started printing the secondary school textbooks because we are still waiting for some outstanding finances. The project has been delayed because the donors have not sent funds as agreed,†said Minister Coltart.
“The whole project requires funding in the range of US$20 million, but the donors have not yet released this money. But as soon as we get the money we will start printing using the same process we used for primary school textbooks.â€
Minister Coltart said the programme would focus on core subjects at secondary school level namely English, Mathematics, Geography, History, Biology, Integrated Science, isiNdebele and Shona.
Early this year, the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, the United Nations Children Fund (Unicef) and other donors entered into a partnership to procure millions of textbooks and stationery kits for schools nationwide.
The programme is run under the Education Transition Fund (ETF) with the aim of improving the quality of education in the country.
It started as a response to serious shortages of teaching and learning materials as well as textbooks in schools where between 10 and 15 pupils share one textbook.
Its goal is to reduce the ratio to one book per pupil.
Meanwhile, Minister Coltart said the distribution process of the primary school textbooks was going on well with most books having been sent to various stations.
The Government launched a nationwide exercise to distribute textbooks to more than 5 500 primary schools last month.
Minister Coltart said he was waiting for a report from Unicef, who are conducting the distribution, to get an update of the exercise. He said priority was given to remote schools so as to complete the exercise before the start of the rainy season.
“Distribution is going on well. We focused on the most remote schools to try and beat the rains. I requested for a progress report from Unicef on Monday but I am yet to receive it.  All I can say is that we are going as fast as we can to cover all the 5 500 primary schools as we contracted several transporting companies for the exercise,†he said.