The repeat of the announcement by President Jacob Zuma that all school teachers will be able to buy laptop computers at the state’s expense must rank as one of the most bizarre announcements of all time.
Although some teachers may welcome the news, anyone who takes the trouble to do the costing and weigh the issue of laptops against other far more crucial educational needs will have to start wondering who is going to benefit from this financial deal.
The most disturbing issue is the claim made by Zuma that the issue of laptops is “to improve the quality of education”.
How I crave to see the research that shows a connection between the quality of education and the possession and use of a laptop. I doubt if I have ever read more “educational nonsense” before.
Is the president suggesting that South African education, as shown in several studies, is behind many much poorer African countries because those countries have laptops and our teachers do not? Well, please show what other country in the world has ensured that every teacher has a laptop and then look at the quality of that country’s education.
The fact is that a poor teacher, an undisciplined teacher, an uncommitted teacher, a lazy teacher, an unprepared teacher will be what he or she is with or without a laptop. Such teachers’ needs are further training, in-service education, a greater degree of self-discipline and a far greater effort at self-improvement.
What are the costs involved?
The laptop costs, if everyone takes up the offer, will exceed R2,5-billion. One of the country’s top networking specialists offered a ballpark figure of a further R7-billion to network all the schools if that is the state’s plan. The initial R2,5-billion is just the start.
Please tell us who is going to train the majority of the 350 000 teachers to use a computer?
Who will provide the support for such teachers?
Who will provide the printers and the ink for printing?
Where will the teacher in the hills of the Transkei or other deep rural areas acquire spares or ink refills or extra paper?
If money was no object, if all schools were fully equipped, if the quality of education was world-class in all schools, if there was no recession and a hundred other ifs … then the free laptops could be a gift in recognition for a job well done.
But in an education system that is failing the children, that in many, many places is in disarray, that has untenable levels of illiteracy and innumeracy at grade six levels and higher, this act is one of gross negligence and financially irresponsible mismanagement.
Consider the shortages: overcrowded classrooms (for example, 130 grade one learners in a mud classroom in the Transkei), insufficient or broken desks and chairs, a chronic shortage of books (textbooks and reading books), a shortage of such basics as exercise books, pencils, rulers and rubbers, schools with no toilets or toilets way short of required standards of hygiene, a lack of electricity, a shortage of learner transport, totally inadequate school feeding essential for hungry children for them to benefit from the education offered, schools without a safe to ensure secure places to keep records and money (and even computers) and the many schools that do not have the security even of a fence and a gate … and the list of shortages of essentials can go even further.
Somewhere someone has lost the plot.
We, the taxpayers, expect scarce money to be wisely spent on the most urgent necessities and priorities … not on headline catching extravagance meant to impress a few.
If laptops for all teachers are what the state sees as a priority then it is time to replace such officials with people who understand the real educational needs.
I return to the critical question and believe we all have a right to demand that the education department publish the full research, which categorically proves the direct connection between teachers having laptop computers and the improvement in the quality of education in our schools.
If there is no such research, be honest enough to admit the error and cancel this ridiculous scheme.
Dr Ken Alston is an education law specialist and consultant.