Edwin Naidu reports on an ambitious plan by the Gauteng Department of Education to introduce computers to learners throughout the province and put the sparkle back into the city of gold
The sense of excitement seen on the faces of educators, learners and parents gathered at Ikaneng Primary in Soweto last month for the launch of GautengOnline was worth more than gold.
Some of them were experiencing the information superhighway – which we all now take for granted – for the first time. The thrill of seeing technology in action was evident when the Gauteng Department of Education’s ambitious R500-million plan to get pupils on the information superhighway, kicked off.
Gauteng premier, Mbhazima Shilowa, flanked by MEC for Education Ignatius Jacobs, dismissed criticism by detractors that the initiative was not a wise way to use government funds.
“The people who say we must not go ahead with this project are the ones with kids in ex-Model C schools. Their kids already enjoy the technological advantages they say we must keep away from our kids,” he said.
“GautengOnline will mean that a learner in a school in Orange Farm will have the same access to knowledge and information as a learner in an expensive private school in Sandton,” Shilowa added.
“By raising the level of IT awareness in the broader community, GautengOnline will also allow us to address the extremely low levels of computer literacy of learners in Gauteng. By ensuring that they are computer literate, we will be able to provide the economy with a pool of trained candidates,” he said.
Shilowa said it was also the Gauteng provincial government’s desire to see GautengOnline used as a national model and a case study for sustainable development for the African continent.
GautengOnline aims to provide every learner in the province with access to e-mail and the Internet by 2006 as part of an R500-million project by the Gauteng Department of Education.
Jacobs said that GautengOnline was not just about providing e-mail access to learners but an attempt to promote economic growth in the province.
GautengOnline programme co-ordinator, Paddy Padayachee: “Since the launch of GautengOnline, the Gauteng Department of Education has made steady progress with regards to implementation. We have completed a technology infrastructure audit of Gauteng schools which has informed our approach to tackle the enormous challenge of ensuring that our education system keeps pace with the technological revolution that is happening around us. The audit revealed that there are already over 6 000 computers in use in Gauteng public schools for teaching and administrative purposes. Over 1 500 computers have been deployed by the Gauteng Department of Education.”
GautengOnline will be installed in 25 pilot schools this year. Each school will be fitted with 25 computers.
During 2002 and 2003 the final roll-out model will be deployed at all schools in Gauteng, ensuring that the welcoming looks on the faces of learners, educators and parents will be experienced throughout the province.
– The Teacher/M&G Media, Johannesburg, July 2001.