SCHOOLS around the country have to provide free textbooks to students.
That is the directive from Education Minister Filipe Bole after some schools referred parents to buy textbooks from bookshops.
Mr Bole said the free education grant already given to schools included money for textbooks.
“The money has already been given to the schools to buy the textbooks so the schools should issue those textbooks for free,” he said.
Mr Bole also encouraged parents to buy textbooks if they could.
“If parents can buy textbooks, they should buy textbooks because there is not only one textbook that is used for one particular lesson.”
He said some schools would issue textbooks later as they were just beginning to buy them as free education grants had been made available.
A government statement issued last year said while free textbooks would be provided, students would have to share them because of financial constraints.
“Students will have to share the textbooks in schools and those parents who can afford to buy their children textbooks may continue to do so,” the statement said.
