For Immediate Release: Tuesday 26 June 2012

The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) has written to the Minister of Basic Education (DBE), Angie Motshekga, demanding an undertaking to make payments for school nutrition programmes and to deliver the workbooks still missing at three public schools in Port Elizabeth.

 The LRC is acting on behalf of the School Governing Bodies (SGBs) of Triomf Primary School, Bethelsdorp Road Primary School and Booysen Park Primary School, and the Bethelsdorp SGB Unit which represents the interests of approximately 35 schools in the Port Elizabeth area. The schools are facing numerous problems because the national DBE and the Eastern Cape DBE have failed to fulfil their constitutional and statutory obligations to protect children’s rights to basic education.

According to the letter dated 25 June, Sarah Sephton, the Director of the LRC in Grahamstown said the schools urgently request:

• An undertaking to make payments for school nutrition programmes at Triomf and Bethelsdorp Schools within ten days of the date of this letter;
• An undertaking to deliver workbooks still missing at Triomf, Bethelsdorp and Booysen Park Schools;
• The steps that will be taken to ensure schools will receive timely payments from DBE for school nutrition programmes in the future and
• A catch up plan for those leaners who have not had success to workbooks for the first two terms of the academic year.

 Sephton said the non-delivery of workbooks constitutes a breach of the children’s right to education and their right to equality as enshrined in the Constitution.

 “The DBE bears responsibility for the production and dissemination of the workbooks and our clients request immediate action from your department to rectify the situation. The impact of not having workbooks is severe and virtually no learning takes place by children without workbooks.

It is appalling that the second term has ended and many schools never received all its workbooks from the first delivery, which are supposed to be covering material from the first and second term,” she said.

ENDS.

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NOTE: For more information please contact:

• Khumbulani Mpofu, LRC's Communications and Marketing Officer, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 011 838 6601/083 695 2025.

• Cameron McConnachie, LRC attorney in Grahamstown at 046 622 9230 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The LRC is an independent, non-profit, public interest law clinic, which uses law as an instrument of justice to provide legal services for the vulnerable.