Damion Mitchell, Staff Reporter THE TEXTBOOKS for Grade 1 primary school students, which reflect the new curriculum, will be delivered on time this year, according to Jackie Cousins, the director of media services in the Ministry of Education.
Addressing the Jamaica Teachers' Association's (JTA) annual conference in Ocho Rios, St. Ann on Wednesday, Mrs. Cousins said the distribution of the books would begin on August 23.
She later told The Gleaner that the $48 million contract to provide the books, was awarded to a Trinidadian company which was the successful of four entities two local and the other two international that had tendered.
Mrs. Cousins said the books, comprising pages made from white bond paper with coloured photographs, would be used in mathematics, language, social studies, science and 'integrated materials'.
SECONDARY SCHOOLS' TEXTBOOKS
Turning to the readiness of textbooks for the secondary schools' book rental scheme, Mrs. Cousins said while they would be delivered after the September 6 schedule, the quantities would be reduced, as investigations have revealed that there was 'a backlog' of unused technical and vocational textbooks available locally.
Mrs. Cousins said an inventory, which began earlier this month and is scheduled to be completed in mid-September, would provide the exact number of titles of books that were available here.
"From the inventory, what we will have is data per school as to where there are titles in bookstores and so we will do transfers," she said.
In the meantime, Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson said Cabinet approved on August 9, the just under $500 million to source the secondary textbooks for the high schools' book rental scheme.
The Education Ministry reported only three days ago that Cabinet was yet to approve the funds to source the books. As a result, it said local publishers were not yet contracted to procure the texts on behalf of the Ministry.
