Cape Town - Thousands of Western Cape teachers and pupils will soon have broadband internet access while smart classrooms will be rolled out to several schools.
At a press conference on Thursday, Education MEC Debbie Schäfer said schools were central to the provincial government’s broadband project and e-learning had been identified as a priority to improve the quality of education in the province.
Contractors have already started measuring up schools for fibre-optic cabling as part of the project, and will start connecting the first schools to the broadband network by May.
“By the end of next year we hope to have about a thousand schools connected to a minimum of 10 megabytes per second connections.”
There were also plans to roll-out about 2 000 smart classrooms, equipped with data projectors, laptops, document readers and other equipment, and to update computer laboratories.
Schäfer said one of the challenges was to ensure that schools had access to all the latest digital education resources to optimise the use of e-learning.
“Currently the Western Cape Education Department has a number of digital education resources available on its website and in schools, such as the telematics project.
“However, there are thousands of excellent digital resources that have been developed worldwide that can support and enhance e-learning and teaching in all subjects across all grades.”
She said the department was therefore inviting developers to submit digital education resources.
The website, http://wcedecatalogue.co.za, will be hosting an online catalogue of e-learning resources.
Schäfer said this would be an important tool for parents, teachers and pupils and would enhance e-learning and teaching in all subjects across grades.
Brian Schreuder, the department’s deputy director-general of curriculum management, said there would be basic screening of these resources to ensure relevance.
As part of the province’s R1.3-billion broadband plan, free wireless internet has already been rolled out to residents in several areas, including Atlantis and George and several schools have benefited.
In Atlantis, limited free internet zones have been made available at four schools, reaching more than 5 000 pupils.
Cape Argus