Cape Town - The province’s 1 500 principals are each receiving a PC tablet to improve communication between schools and the provincial Education Department.
The roll-out of the R4.8 million project started on Thursday and all tablets were expected to be delivered by the end of Friday.
In his budget speech in March, Education MEC Donald Grant said it was hoped the tablets would help principals “work smarter”.
On Thursday, the first three were delivered to the principals of Phandulwazi High, Oaklands Secondary and Greenfield Girls’ Primary.
“It is so important that we communicate more effectively with the leaders in our schools and that our districts and ourselves are there to back up our schools, especially regarding issues like the new school improvement plans,” Grant said.
Principals could also use the devices to network with one other.
The devices have 3G and wireless capability and 500MB of data will be loaded monthly.
Applications include e-mail, sound recorders, video players, navigation, maps and an e-reader.
“In addition applications such as Skype, Kingsoft Office, Adobe Reader and WhatsApp have been downloaded to assist Western Cape Education Department officials and principals to maximise their opportunities for communication between themselves as well as to create professional learning communities.”
Cape Argus