Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and her provincial Members of Executive Councils (MECs) have re-committed themselves to watching how the department spends money because they will not get anything extra from the fiscus, her office said on Tuesday.

Motshekga and the MECs met Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in Pretoria after she and her deputy Enver Surty travelled to schools countrywide.

They found that many schools' problems were rooted in poor financial planning.

"... For instance, some schools procure irrelevant text-books that do not assist either the teacher or the learner," she said in a statement.

The department was centralising the procurement of learning and teaching support material and finalising a catalogue of textbooks that would be used by all schools in every province.

Gordhan said that the extra money provinces needed would not come from the national fiscus, as basic education had the largest budget with R6-billion set aside for the 2010/2011 financial year.