LTSM for all – Pipe Dream or Realisable goal? – Infographic

Between 2016/17 and 2020/21, provincial governments spent approximately R18.9 billion on textbooks, stationery, and other forms of LTSM. With the Department of Basic Education providing Grade R as part of compulsory education, expenditure on Grade R LTSM has risen over the five years. This increase in spending on Grade R LTSM is expected to continue. The spending review found that procurement models differ across provinces, leading to varying efficiencies and cost savings. Moreover, there is little effort to monitor the performance of the LTSM programme against the norm of giving each learner a textbook per subject. In effect, this means that South Africa does not know how many books it has, how many books it still needs and how much money is required to meet its target.