Kagiso Trust InBrief Issue#17 August 2015 Aug 2015 | Page 19

www.kagiso.co.za

year later and Lesufi is not alone
in the belief that the future of the
South African education system
will be improved through the
embracing of technologies available to both
learners and educators. The innovative use of
information and communications technology
(ICT) has proved beneficial for numerous
schools where learners
are able to interact
with educators and
other learners to gain
clarity on subjects they
encounter challenges in.

in January this year at seven schools with a
further 14 schools to be included in the pilot.

Through using gadgets
such as smart phones
and tablets, devises
most
children
are
already familiar with,
learners can be taught in
a way that is stimulating
and relevant to them.
However,
simply
providing tablets to
schools will not guarantee success.

However, the pilot has
recently
experienced
challenges
where
a
number of tablets were
stolen in some of the
schools. This has not
dampened the Gauteng
Education Department’s
spirits;
instead
they
recalled the tablets (some
88  000 which have been distributed from
2013) to ensure that all tablets are fitted
with tracking technology in case of theft.

A

The practical benefits of the transformation
to paperless classroom have been amazing:
the costs of elearning content versus
textbooks are around a quarter of the
price, learners do not need to carry or
share textbooks anymore
and educators can easily
mark homework and
assignments with the
assistance
of
online
programmes.

“our
children
are the
future”

“ICTs have proven to be the sustainable ways
of transforming education. The elearning
strategy involves five critical pillars:
connectivity,
econtent,
infrastructure,
capacity-building, and maintenance and
support. Continuous training is being
provided to educators to support and
enhance their utilisation of ICTs,” says Lesufi.
The Department of