The South African government has launched a massive eLearning programme that will see 2,200 institutions in Gauteng benefit from a distribution of 88,000 tablets for school kids.
Each schools shortlisted for the programme will receive 44 ten inch Huawei devices.
This new initiative is a part of the review of the Gauteng Online Schools Programme. The new programme is expected to be launched in January 2014, a date that the Kenyan government has also put up as the laptops per child programme kicks off.
“This comprehensive review of the GoL programme resulted in the much needed alignment of the e-Learning methodology to global norms and standards,” a statement from the government read.
The programe also secured connectivity contracts that include Wi-Fi providers and 3G networks for a period of two years.
“The service provider will also identify an emerging youth owned ICT company, and shall transfer network development, maintenance and support skills to them over the 2-year period. This empowerment effort will eliminate the current sole service provider status, and thus improve supply side measures in this monopolistic industry sector,” the government stated.
The project is set to cost the government, ZAR289 million for tablets and ZAR396.2 million for network and coverage for two years.
“The future classroom will result in all learners using their own devices (e.g. tablets, smart phones, netbooks etc.) that would contain all their e-Books and grade specific curriculum content,” the statement said.
“Besides, through the use of specialised software packages, we will be able to personalise educator-learner encounters, and thus expedite constructive interactions to maximise learning experiences. Likewise, learners will easily access libraries, instead of spending a limited amount of time every week in a physical computer laboratory.”
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