Hurricanes delay school books

BOOKS for Form Three students of secondary schools under the textbook rental/loan programme have been delayed because of the active hurricane season. Under the programme for secondary schools, the Ministry of Education is supposed to supply Forms One and Two with texts for Mathematics, Language Arts, Spanish and Science. Form Threes were added to this year’s programme and texts for Mathematics, Language Arts and Spanish are to be supplied. However, Newsday received complaints from several parents whose children are in Form Three, who claimed that the English and Spanish textbooks have not been supplied. They wondered whether they had to purchase the texts. Newsday was told that among the texts which have been provided are the English texts Choices and Access and the Spanish texts Viva Book Three and Listos. The texts to be used at the various schools differ.  

Confirmation of the problem came after Newsday checked with some of the schools. School officials preferred to remain anonymous, but while one school in Maraval said it had not received texts for all three subjects, another said it had not received texts for English and Spanish. School officials said they were told that the books would be available by the end of the month. In a release, the Ministry of Education listed six book dealers as the suppliers of texts under the programme. Newsday was told Mohammed’s Book Store, Ishmael M Khan and Sons Ltd and Lexicon are the suppliers for the Form Three texts. A spokesperson at Mohammed’s referred Newsday to Lexicon, where an official said the “books will be supplied by the end of the month, hopefully,” and directed Newsday to the ministry for more information.

Kelvin Khan of Ishmael M Khan and Sons told Newsday they were supplying Access and Listos. He said the vessel bringing the supply of books from the United Kingdom was due in Trinidad last week. But because of Hurricanes Frances and Ivan, “We are trying to ascertain where it is right now.” Khan said sample texts were given to schools and the publishers of the texts have given permission for the earlier part of the texts to be photocopied for use, until the texts arrive. The same has been done for the use of  Choices and Viva Book Three. Newsday was also told the ministry requested the books from the suppliers very late, which  contributed to the delay. When Newsday spoke to Mervyn Critchlow, communications specialist at the ministry, he said he was unaware there was a problem, promising to look into the matter.