The Ministry of Education says some students have shared textbooks and even photocopied class work because of the failure of school heads to pass on timely and up to date information to the ministry.

Permanent Secretary for Education Iowane Tiko says they sent school heads forms to fill before October but some of them have not even made the effort to respond to the request by the Education Resource Unit.

Tiko says their policy is that a student should have a textbook each but this is not happening in some cases because information is not being delivered in a timely manner.

The Permanent Secretary says in some cases the textbooks have arrived on time in schools but it is not distributed in a timely manner to students.

Tiko says school heads and teachers that limit outcomes in the classroom and are not honestly doing their job will be taken to task.

Education Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has also requested that yearly records on the maintenance of textbooks and timely requests of textbooks be included as Key Performance Indicators for school heads, as well as for Education Resource Staff.