A digital bookstore for South African schools and learners, called ZA Books, is now exclusively available on iPads through local dealer CoreGroup to provide South African institutions with textbooks as prescribed by the national curriculum.
“This is the first comprehensive SA K12 textbook store for the iPad. It offers textbooks from Grade 1 to 12, in line with the stipulations of the Department of Education, but we also have ‘light reading’ titles, teacher handbooks and even workbooks for learners,” Linda de Klerk, Marketing Manager at ZA Books, said.
With more than 33 subjects and 600 textbooks from South African publishers, including Cambridge University Press, Macmillan, Oxford University Press and Random House Struik, a free download is available through the iTunes App Store.
Stock will increase on a daily and weekly basis as more publishers join with their titles.
Purchases from the Apple store will save an estimated 25 percent in comparison to acquiring the printed copy.
Although the launch is initially focused on equipping schools, it will also be accessible to individual learners through licence codes that institutions can issue to learners as they request book orders from organised bookshelves.
Books are searchable by title and available in PDF format with interactive functions such as highlighting, commenting and bookmarking.
This release is another step towards revolutionising the traditional classroom with digital aids for selective schools in South Africa.
MacMillan has reported a visible increase in ebook orders with the opening of 2013’s school season.
