On Friday 14 May a school library was opened at Thembelihle High School in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. The library was opened through the work of Equal Education, a movement for quality and equality in education, currently leading a campaign for school libraries. The books were collected through the ‘Bookery’, a project of Equal Education (EE) that establishes functional libraries in schools that have a library space but no books. Thembelihle is only the first of many such libraries that will be opened; the next being at Homba Primary School on 8 June 2010.

Western Cape MEC for Education Donald Grant spoke at the opening. The MEC has expressed and shown personal support for the Campaign for School Libraries. His presence at the opening was appreciated, as was his generous donation of dictionaries to the Bookery. However EE believes that some of what he said requires a response.

The MEC stated that “as many as 60 percent of Western Cape schools have libraries”. He remarked that this was “far in excess of any other province in the country”. Both claims appear to be false. According to the newest comprehensive government report on educational infrastructure, the National Education Infrastructure Management System (NEIMS) Report 2009, only 53% of Western Cape schools have a library space (less than Gauteng.) But only half of these schools, 26% of all Western Cape schools, actually have a stocked library.

The MEC’s comments on school library policy were also deeply troubling. He derided the simple call for every school to have a functioning library and a librarian as “idealism”. This caused offence to the learners, teachers, activists and Khayelitsha community members attending the library opening. That every child in South Africa should have access to an organised selection of books, information and learning materials from grade 1 until matric is a fundamental human right; it is the most basic expression of “freedom, equality and human dignity” as called for in our Constitution.

Whilst evading the question of a comprehensive literacy and school libraries plan, the MEC spoke of “resource centres”, “study facilities” and “text-rich environments”. Teachers, learners and the public are confused. If new schools are getting “resources centres” why not all schools? Parents understand what a school library is, but are unsure of a “text-rich environment”. Whilst it is a well-established principle that classrooms must be text-rich, to EE members who go without text books and library books it sounds like “idealism”. OBE has made us weary of fancy phrases. And “text-rich environments” need organisation, part of which can be provided by a school library staffed by a dedicated librarian.

EE will support all government initiatives to address the chronic lack of access to books, texts in the classrooms, wall-charts, IT access and much else. But what is needed – and currently absent – is a budgeted, time-tabled implementation plan to put these things within reach of every child.

At the Education Budget Vote on 24 March 2010 MEC Grant said the department has “the ultimate objective of providing school libraries to all schools”. However, at the library opening he stated that “no province, with the best will in the world, can afford to provide one library per school in the foreseeable future”. Does this mean that the WCED is not preparing a medium-term, or even long-term plan to get there?

In his speech at the library opening the MEC stated: “We have to make hard choices. When the choice is between putting a library in an existing school and building a new school to provide teaching to learners without teachers, there is simply no contest.” We recognise these hard choices. EE has never said that school libraries should take precedence over new schools or new teaching posts. In fact, this week we presented to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Basic Education on the overall infrastructure needs of the education system, and recently criticised the funding of teaching posts which discriminates against poor schools. The real choice, however, is between building a R4,5bn stadium in Greenpoint rather than 9,000 new school libraries. The real choice is to “shift resources from back-office operations to frontline services”, as called for in chapter 1 of National Treasury’s 2009 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS). The real choice, as pointed out in chapter 4 of the MTBPS is to find “substantial savings” in “non-essential items, such as catering, communication, consultants, inventory, stationery and printing, travel and subsistence, accommodation and entertainment.” The MEC has these choices to make within his own department, whose district offices are, in some cases, bloated and ineffectual. He said it himself in his Budget Vote speech: “Through simple cutbacks and the re-direction of resources, we can make text-rich classrooms possible.” Beyond this, a serious plan for quality and equal education will require ear-marked funding at provincial and national levels, particularly for posts and training, and we expect our MEC to fight for that. We will be with him on that. It also requires fair terms of trade globally for the cheaper printing, publishing and purchasing of books and software, and we expect the MEC, along with national department, to fight for that too.

Equal Education is fully aware of what the MEC calls the “financial realities”. We have drawn up a comprehensive costing model, calculating the cost of school library infrastructure, materials, librarian posts and training for every province, including the Western Cape. We would welcome engagement with the MEC to improve upon and implement such a plan for the province. Such a goal would truly put the Western Cape out in front of the pack.

[ENDS]