By Thapelo Molefe

The new Foundation Phase National Catalogue for Grades 1 to 3 has been cleared for implementation, with provinces now authorised to begin procuring learning and teaching materials from the catalogue for the 2027 academic year.

The decision follows the Council of Education Ministers (CEM) meeting on Friday, after the catalogue and the reviews into its development were considered by the basic education sector.

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The development brings an end, at least for now, months of uncertainty over the catalogue after Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube suspended its implementation and ordered further legal scrutiny of the procurement process.

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) now says the catalogue can proceed following reviews by the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA), an independent investigation, the department’s internal legal services and external Senior Counsel.

According to the latest position communicated by the department, the reviews found no fraud or favouritism and provided no basis for cancelling the catalogue.

The department said recommendations arising from the reviews would instead be incorporated into the strengthening of governance and administration around learning and teaching support materials (LTSM), while procurement proceeds.

The catalogue is already listed on the DBE’s official LTSM catalogue page as the 2026 Foundation Phase National Catalogue for Grades 1 to 3.

The new catalogue is intended to replace Foundation Phase materials that have been in use for many years.

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It covers learning and teaching materials for the Foundation Phase, including Home Language, First Additional Language, Mathematics, Life Skills and Coding and Robotics.

The department says it is designed to provide more up-to-date, curriculum-aligned resources while strengthening early-grade literacy and numeracy.

One of the major changes concerns reading materials.

The new catalogue provides for 40 readers per class and a Core Reader for every learner. It also reduces the number of listed titles from eight to three.

The DBE says the reduction is intended to allow teachers and subject advisers to work more closely around a smaller number of approved resources rather than spreading teacher development and support across a larger number of titles.

The catalogue also introduces provision for newer curriculum areas, including Coding and Robotics.

The department says the new procurement model could also create efficiencies through economies of scale and broaden participation in the publishing sector.

The department had previously identified gaps in the catalogue, particularly in some African languages.

In March, the DBE said it had identified 107 gaps across languages and called on publishers to submit proposals to address them. It said significant gaps existed in languages including IsiNdebele, Siswati, Tshivenda and Xitsonga.

The implementation decision follows a period of intense disagreement over the catalogue.

Gwarube announced on 2 September that she would maintain the suspension of the new catalogue while legal implications arising from an independent investigation were considered.

The minister said the investigation had identified material areas of non-compliance, governance weaknesses and potential procurement and financial management risks.

She said the existing catalogue would remain available to provinces for the 2027 school year while the new catalogue underwent legal scrutiny and remediation.

The minister had previously raised concerns about the way the catalogue process departed from normal competitive bidding procedures.

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The catalogue subsequently became the centre of a wider dispute involving Gwarube, the DBE administration and other stakeholders, with questions raised about the process used to evaluate publishers and allocate titles.

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Basic Education also resolved to refer the catalogue process to the Public Protector following concerns raised about the procurement process, blind screening strategy and conflicting accounts from senior officials.

The latest position is that the different layers of scrutiny did not establish fraud or favouritism that would justify cancelling the catalogue.

The department says these reviews confirmed the integrity of the process and that there was therefore no basis to cancel the catalogue.

This position differs from the concerns previously raised by the minister.

DBE Director-General Mathanzima Mweli has rejected the framing of the dispute as a personal conflict between himself and Gwarube.

In an interview with Inside Education, Mweli repeatedly stressed that the decision was not his personal decision but that of the Heads of Education Departments Committee (HEDCOM), which consists of the heads of the national and nine provincial education departments.

“It’s not my response. It’s HEDCOM that has taken a decision,” Mweli said.

He said focusing on his position as Director-General created the wrong impression because the DBE does not purchase the books.

“DBE doesn’t buy books. Books are bought by provinces,” Mweli said.

He said the money for textbook procurement was located in the provinces and that provincial education departments were responsible for purchasing the materials.

“Who has the money to buy books? Where is the money?” Mweli asked, arguing that reporting the issue as a dispute between two national officials overlooked the role of the provincial education departments.

Mweli said he was a member and chair of HEDCOM but that he should not be portrayed as HEDCOM itself.

“I’m a member of HEDCOM but I’m not HEDCOM,” he said.

According to Mweli, the disagreement should instead be understood as one between HEDCOM and the minister over the catalogue.

He also denied that there was a personal conflict between himself and Gwarube.

“There is no shred of evidence of any fight between the two of us,” Mweli said, adding that he and the minister were communicating about other education matters.

He said his personal view on whether the catalogue should proceed was irrelevant because the decision had been taken at a broader institutional level.

“I have no view. My view is irrelevant. Because I don’t buy books,” Mweli said.

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“The view that is there is the view of HEDCOM.”

The DBE said it had already engaged provinces on the procurement process and that procurement had commenced.

The department said it was confident that the education sector would work together to ensure the books were ordered and delivered before the beginning of the new academic year.

The catalogue dispute had already delayed the procurement process for materials intended for 2027.

The DBE had previously said provinces were being consulted on centralised procurement as one way of using economies of scale. It said previous experience suggested that centralised procurement could result in significant cost reductions.

Provincial departments, rather than the national DBE, remain responsible for procurement.

This means the immediate challenge is now to translate the decision into orders, production and delivery of learning materials to schools.

The catalogue comes at a time when the government is placing greater emphasis on foundational learning.

Gwarube has previously announced that 10,000 Foundation Phase teachers would receive targeted literacy and numeracy training during 2026/27 as part of efforts to strengthen early-grade learning.

The department has also linked its Foundation Phase reforms to efforts to improve reading, mathematics and teacher development.

The department said the immediate priority was now delivery.

INSIDE EDUCATION

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