MIThril http://wearables.www.media.mit.edu/projects/wearables/mithril
The Enchantment Window Manager
http://albireo.mit.edu/enchantment.html
Steve Mann http://wearcam.org
Wearable Computing www.wearablecomputing.com
Xybernaut www.xybernaut.com
WetPC www.aims.gov.au/wetpc
Twiddlers www.handykey.com
5th International Symposium on Wearable Computers
http://iswc.gatech.edu
Bristol Wearable Computing project
http://wearables.cs.bris.ac.uk/
Charmed www.charmed.com
MARS Mobile Augmented Reality Systems
www.cs.columbia.edu/graphics/projects/mars/mars.html
BARS http://ait.nrl.navy.mil/vrlab/projects/BARS/BARS.html
Lart www.lart.tudelft.nl
@ Monitor
Learners still don’t get the same deal
Russell Wildeman
The new school-funding policy that came into effect last year will not transform poor schools into rich schools. Its redistributive thrust is subject to the demands of budget reform and the aim of fiscal discipline. It has to reconcile the limited resources of education departments with that of progressive funding policies that favour poor schools.
However, the new policy excludes capital expenditure and spending on educators, which are at the heart of current funding inequalities between schools. In so doing it makes provision for items that are vital for the pedagogic success of all learners.
Norms and Standards for School Funding was first published in 1998 to give effect to the funding provisions of the South African Schools Act of 1996. Section 34 of the Act requires the state to fund public schools from public revenue on an equitable basis to ensure redress of historical inequalities.
In terms of the new policy public schools are ranked from the poorest to the least poor on two factors: the poverty of the community surrounding the school and the conditions at a school. Scores on these two factors are combined into a single poverty index, and subsequent allocation of resources is based on the position of a school on the poverty index.
The progressive nature of the policy determines that 60% of available recurrent non-personnel resources should go to 40% of the poorest schools in each education department. There are three categories of expenditure: maintenance of school buildings, municipal utilities like electricity and water, and learner support material not only textbooks and stationery, but also teaching equipment and media collections.
Provincial education departments spent 91% on average on personnel last year, leaving only a small slice of funding for redistribution.
It is especially the “middle schools” those that fall between the poorest and the rich schools that are affected because they serve communities that lack a stable income, while rich public schools are likely to adjust to declining subsidies.
The real funding battle is therefore between rich and poor public schools, and not between public and independent schools. Subsidies to independent schools are paid on the basis of a range of eligibility criteria and the level of school fees charged, and comes to less than 1% of total provincial education spending.
The implementation of the new school funding policy last year exposed various forms of inequalities in the public schooling system. Within provincial education departments, poor schools that lack infrastructure and key services were disadvantaged, in spite of being on the top of the redress list.
These schools were not in a position to purchase learner support materials and teaching equipment in bulk, for example, because they had nowhere to store it. In others, lack of financial management compounded the problem.
The financial impact of these problems resulted in massive under-spending in poor schools across provincial education departments. The budgets of most of these schools are still managed by education departments.
In contrast, Section 21 schools (including some, but not all, former Model C schools that opted to stay in the state system) have direct access to their funds, and for the most part did not experience problems of underspending.
Apartheid realities mean that many Section 21 schools had the necessary facilities and infrastructure and could therefore spend their state allocation with ease.
Provincial education departments have begun to address some of the challenges they faced. Although interprovincial funding inequities continue, this year’s allocations are benefiting far more poor learners than was the case last year.
Northern Cape and Gauteng are still committing more resources than other provinces to this redistributive policy, even though Northern Cape’s average per-pupil allocation of R300 far outstrips Gauteng’s of R207. Other provincial departments’ allocations are lagging behind the two, exaggerating interprovincial inequities, because poor learners in different provinces are still not getting the same deal.
Russell Wildeman is education researcher at the Institute for Democracy in South Africa