The main purpose of the Working group on Books and Learning Materials is to address the continuing shortage of appropriate teaching, learning and literacy materials for formal and non-formal education. For the past two years, our work plan has focused on the financing of textbooks which the Working Group has identified as being one of the key problems undermining access to education.
Exploring cost recovery schemes
Several Ministries of Education are currently exploring different approaches to cost sharing and/or cost recovery schemes in their determination to ensure that more students have access to learning materials on a one-to-one basis. Following the study published by the Working Group in 1997, Economics of Publishing Educational Materials in Africa, we decided to commission case studies on current practice in the financing of textbooks.
At the ADEA Biennial Meeting held in Dakar in October, the Minister of Education from Mozambique, Hon. Arnaldo Nhavoto, offered to host a workshop in Maputo that would bring together specialists in textbook provision from Mozambique, Lesotho and the Gambia. As a result, Charles Sehlabi (Manager, School Supply Unit, Ministry of Education, Lesotho), Theo George (Daily Observer Manager and former Head of Books Production Learning Resources Unit, Ministry of Education, the Gambia) and myself participated in a workshop convened by Secretary General Adelino Jaime da Cruz (Ministry of Education, Mozambique) in Maputo last December. Also attending the meeting were officials involved in Mozambiqueâs Caixa Escolar (school fund) and Alberto da Barca, general manager of the state publishing company DINAME.
Experiences from the Gambia, Lesotho and Mozambique
Charles Sehlabi gave an overview of the development of the book rental scheme in Lesotho. This provided a useful up-date of the presentation he had made at the DAE Conference on Textbook Provision and Library Development in Africa (Manchester,October 1991). A wide range of over 50 different titles (studentsâ books and teachersâ guides) are provided in English, Maths, Science, Social Studies, for which parents pay user fees for their children in Grades 1-7.
Theo George commented on the Gambiaâs experience in developing a similar scheme for materials in English, Maths, Science, Social Studies and Islamic Studies. This has been phased in over a 3 year period (1992/1995) for primary and junior secondary students.
Mozambiqueâs experience is based on a cost sharing approach between the Government of Mozambique and funding agencies. The Ministry draws up an annual operational plan under which, according to the resources available, books are either provided free to all students in a particular grade, or only to the most needy. The caixa escolar was originally set up in order to help improve school enrolment and attendance through the provision of school materials, depending on need and the availability of resources. It was therefore significant to learn that, although the Gambia and Lesotho have established specific procedures for cost exemption, these have only been applied in the Gambia on a limited scale. This may be because the user fees in both cases were set at a very low level. In the Gambia, they have remained unchanged since the scheme was launched in 1991.
The meeting enabled the countries to learn from each otherâs experiences in tackling problems such as: (i) establishing an annual schedule for book provision; (ii) mobilizing different channels for book distribution; (iii) addressing the limited life span of some textbooks in circulation; (iv) collecting user fees on a regular, systematic basis; and (v) managing book provision at national, regional and school levels.
A common observation was that the management systems in place could be further streamlined at national, provincial and school levels. Nevertheless, the schemes have succeeded in bringing about a dramatic improvement in all three countries, not only in access to educational materials by the majority of students but also in the amount of books in circulation for the teaching and learning of core subjects.
Case studies will document schemes
The workshop participants agreed on a common format for writing up the case studies. The experiences in Lesotho and Mozambique have already aroused the interest of Ministries of Education in Angola, Burkina Faso, Togo and Viet Nam and it is hoped that the case studies will provide a useful contribution to the persistent international concern to ensure that affordable materials are available on a sustainable, equitable basis. There was wide recognition that it would be useful to have Côte dâIvoire and Jamaica comment on their experience of cost recovery at secondary level. ADEA could then provide up-to-date information on the lessons learnt from the operation of these schemes.
It was decided that, in both the Gambia and Lesotho, it would be constructive to organize a follow up meeting at national level, involving the main stakeholders in the textbook rental scheme. Finally, our host Adelino Jaime da Cruz mentioned that the Minister of Education, Hon. Arnaldo Nhavoto, proposes setting up a National Working Group on Books and Learning Materials in order to work more closely with us!
Carew Treffgarne
Leader of the
ADEA Working Group on Books and
Learning Materials
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