Question NW2258 to the Minister of Basic Education

Reply:

(a) Provinces and schools procured Braille titles for learners with visual difficulties in the 2016/17 financial year according to the resources and budget available to them. Out of nine (9) provinces, six (6) provinces procured resources for their visually impaired learners. One (1) of the three (3) provinces that have not procured centrally, Limpopo, indicated that they are working with Braille Production houses within their province to produce Braille Master copies for each subject in each grade. The Department is waiting for responses from other two provinces (Free State and Kwa Zulu-Natal) that did not order Braille textbooks centrally; and will provide such information once it is received.

(b) It has to be noted that Braille books, by their nature, are resources that can be repeatedly utilised, and that schools and provinces are mostly required to procure top-ups for learners with visual impairment. The number of resources procured by all schools and provinces during the 2016/17 financial year is 2941, procured according to the needs of individual learners and schools. The list of titles of the books procured per title per province is attached as Annexure A.

(i) & (ii) The Department of Basic Education (DBE) is not in possession of information on the number of learners with visual impairment who do not currently have their own copy of the required large print books for learning at each school and in each province. The honourable member is advised to direct such a question to the National Council of Provinces or the Provincial Education Departments as it is a provincial competency.