The excitement that followed the government’s announcement of an initiative to provide every schoolteacher with a laptop by mid-2011 is slowly fizzling out among teachers because the scheme is now a year behind schedule.
The government announced the initiative in 2008 and gazetted it in May last year. A two-year roll out was due to start in July last year, with the aim that all permanently employed teachers have laptops by mid-2011.
The plan involves teachers receiving a monthly taxable allowance of R130 to purchase laptops from service providers approved by the government. Teachers will have to fund the difference between that allowance and the monthly repayments on their laptops. The repayments will be effected by stop orders set up by the government’s teacher salary payment system Persal.
But Heins Worst of the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) says the roll-out cannot proceed until stop orders have been set up and the treasury is still to complete its role in this.
Progress has been made since the 2008 announcement, Worst said. Service providers, which include 10 top brands in the IT sector, have been identified and technical laptop specifications have been determined.
The stop-order facility had been vulnerable to fraud in the past, Worst added. “The treasury is working on a stop-order code that can be accessed only by the identified service providers.” The process needs to be integrated into Persal by both the treasury and the department of basic education, and this process takes time, Worst said.
The department of basic education told the Teacher that the need to consult with the ELRC and teacher unions had also affected the readiness of each provincial department. Spokesman Granville Whittle said the implementation of the plan and timelines for the roll-out vary from province to province. The roll-out will also depend on resources available to each provincial education department (PED).
Some teachers and observers expressed disappointment about further delays in implementing the project, saying PEDs have poor records of implementing initiatives of such a complex nature. Last year, the Teacher reported on the widespread administrative and financial weaknesses that resulted in budget overruns, and the inability to fill key administrative and teaching posts in most PEDs.
The national department has expressed confidence in the provincial departments’ capability to implement the project. It said in a statement: “The function for implementation of the initiative both legally and practically lies with the provinces. While the minister has the powers and functions to determine policy, the actual function of implementation together with the budget are with the PEDs.
“The department has provided all the necessary support, including providing policy and administrative guidelines, suggested systems and processes to facilitate the implementation.”
The project is part of the department’s aim to integrate information and communications technology in classrooms to equip about 360 000 teachers in South Africa with 21st-century IT skills.
Teacher unions and other educationists support the initiative but have pointed out that some teachers will need to be trained in the technology.