Olive Maragh, assistant chief education officer in the Media Services Unit at the Ministry of Education, made the disclosure during a JIS Think Tank, at the agency's head office in Kingston, Wednesday.

Assistant Chief Education Officer in the Professional Development Unit in the ministry, Claudette Carter, noted that schools at the secondary level have supplies of textbooks that they can use until new books arrive.

Schools must improvise

At the primary level, however, she said that while there may be a problem from grades one to three regarding integrated books, teachers are being advised to use the Literacy 1, 2, 3 series developed by the ministry, until the integrated books arrive.

"The math books, which are workbooks, may pose a problem, but we have some supplies in stock at Caenwood and those will be going out. We will be asking the schools to use those books as textbooks rather than workbooks, in the interim, until the (new) books arrive," she explained.

Maragh said that the distribution of secondary school books have already started in Kingston.

"The others (suppliers) have promised that they will begin distribution as early as possible," she said.

October deadline

Regarding the distribution of approved texts at the primary level, she noted that those should be ready by October.

Carter also explained that in terms of primary level books, the submission to Cabinet is yet to be approved. She said that it was necessary to review the cost and compare it with that of other suppliers, which delayed the process.

"We hope that the contract will be signed for the primary schools, and we expect that considerable savings will be derived from this. The books will be delivered to the schools but they will be late this year," she admitted.

In the meantime, Carter is appealing to principals and teachers to seek creative solutions to the issues which may arise from the delay, so they will be able to manage until the process is complete.