Jophannesburg -
Sixteen kilometres separates Boitumelong Secondary in Tembisa from Kempton Park High, but when the schools reopen on Wednesday their classes will be merged - virtually.
They will be the first in Gauteng MEC for Education’s Panyaza Lesufi’s plans to twin Gauteng schools and bring them into the digital era.
Ten schools will go live with the twinning, using smart technology with wi-fi, interactive boards and tablets for pupils, on Wednesday. By June, the schools in the pilot project will be fully merged.
Among the schools to be twinned are Sandown High and Alexandra High in Joburg, Hoërskoel Waterkloof and Mamelodi Secondary in Pretoria, and Hoërskool Noordheuwel and Kagiso Secondary in Krugersdorp.
Lesufi has set himself an ambitious target of converting 100 schools a year into paperless places by the end of 2017, but says that 420 township and rural schools will be part of the programme.
Setting up at Boitumelong Secondary School as a digital school cost about R7 million.
Lesufi said the amounts spent at each of the schools would not be the same.
The cost of the digital transformation is being carried in part by private-public partnerships, with the budget for school books being diverted to fund tablets and e-books.
Last year, when the project was mooted, it was given a R2 billion budget.
“When the best biology teacher teaches in Kempton Park, these kids here (in Tembisa) can see what he is doing,” Lesufi said.
“They don’t have to move to Kempton Park. That is why we are putting up these screens.
“That is why the schools that are merging are the ones that we are setting up with technology so that the twinning is real – it’s one school. Obviously that teacher will not want to come to teach here because they will tell you it’s in the township and there is crime. But with technology that teacher will be transported here.”
The twinning of schools, Lesufi said, was about sharing lessons, classwork and best resources. During revision, the schools would be connected so that the best teacher who was revising would be virtually present on the pupils’ tablets.
“This is more than futuristic. It mustn’t be the colour of your skin that determines what kind of teacher teaches you.
“Those teachers at former model C schools are the best the country has. I can advertise a post of a principal here (Tembisa), but no white male principal will apply for that post. Is there a law the prohibits them from applying? No!
“We are going to perpetuate stereotypes if we don’t twin these schools.”
Lesufi said that with the pairing of schools, their governing bodies could share ideas and knowledge.
He said he consulted all parties and was to gazette the changes. There would be more public consultation following this, but he expected that within three months the process would be complete.
A previous attempt to bring digital technology to schools - the R3bn Gauteng Online project, which aimed to put computers into every school - had failed because of problems that included theft, inadequate maintenance and support.
Now every tablet issued will be fitted with a tracking device that will enable the department to recover it if it is stolen.
- Saturday Star