Arts and Culture Minister Paul Mashatile said on Friday that there was room for improvement in the way South Africa’s schools were functioning and added that heads should have rolled over the late delivery of textbooks in Limpopo and Eastern Cape.

Mashatile, who was speaking at a Daily Maverick conference, in Johannesburg, said that people should not be allowed to continue in their positions when they “mess up”.

Congress of South African Trade Unions general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi added that dismissals over the textbook scandal should have happened a long time ago.

“We have correct policies in place and have mobilised the unions, business, civil society and government to sign a basic education accord early last year, which prescribed steps the State must undertake to contribute and ensuring that we address the problems.

“The biggest one is the dysfuncitionality of our schools. According to the National Planning Commission 91% [of schools in the country] are dysfunctional, which is being followed by collapse of education. So there are plans in terms of what has to be done . . . but there is lack of political will to do something, across the board.”

He said Cosatu regarded the issue of education, among other problems, such as the existence of monopolies and the lack of industrialisation, as serious issues that had to be tackled.