Union pens teacher laptop deal

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By Christelle du Toit and Paul Furber, ITWeb senior journalist
Johannesburg, 20 Aug 2008

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Inappropriate spending
Subsidy urged

The SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) has brokered a R330 million deal that aims to arm all 240 000 of its members with ultra-mobile low-cost notebooks – about 70% of the country's teaching fraternity.

The union has blasted government for not doing enough to advance the ICT agenda and not delivering on its promise to give teachers laptops.

Collin Fidelis, executive head of business development at Rectron, announced last night that Sadtu would roll out Asus's EEE PCs to its members under a scheme financed by Bayport. As part of the deal, teachers would have to buy their own laptops.

Rectron will supply the units, as well as elementary training to the teachers, to provide what Fidelis says is "a meaningful solution to the mobile PC problem".

Sadtu chairman Thokile Nthola says the Department of Education (DOE) had failed to provide the union's members with the necessary resources, despite expecting it to produce human resources for the country.

"Our members' job is to produce skilled resources for the country, but after 14 years of independence, 90% of teachers are still computer illiterate. That's a difficult task confronting us. If you are going to revolutionise education, you should make ICT an important part of everyday activities."

Inappropriate spending

Nthola says SA cannot escape the effects of globalisation. "The demand for resources is growing and, therefore, we need to explore every avenue to create advantages for our citizens." He notes that 70% of schools in the country do not have computers.

"The state should be leading us – not spending money on arms deals."

Government has committed itself to rolling out a laptop to every teacher in the country, something that was to be put before Parliament before year-end. The Universal Services Access Fund could potentially be used or this, if there is no duplication with other initiatives taking place.

For Nthola, the question remains: “When will this happen [the state rolling out laptops to teachers]? Can they tell us when? When are they implementing it?”

Sadtu and the DOE still have to “find each other” on the issue of ICT, he notes, but in the meantime, the union has decided it is time to roll out its own ICT solution to schools.

An EEE PC costs between R1 500 and R2 500.

Nthola says Sadtu has to lead the way as far as ICT in schools is concerned. “We have to revolutionise teaching and IT will make it easier.”

He explains that the EEE PC initiative is an “essential start” to ensuring ICT is part of the “repertoire of skills” with which children leave school.

“The idea is to permeate our institutions with ICT so it can become a live experience, instead of a pipedream – it is a pipedream as we speak.”

Subsidy urged

Asus launched the latest range of EEE PCs at a gala function attended by its distribution and vendor partners and Sadtu last night. The new EEEs incorporate Intel's latest Atom chipset, have longer battery life, and the options of larger screen sizes, built-in conventional hard drives and Bluetooth.

Under the Sadtu deal, teachers will be given a choice of which laptop they want to buy, with Bayport facilitating financing. The deal took three to four years to broker.

According to Nthola, the laptops can be used for things other than teaching, but the idea is that classes can be prepared and stored on them.

While Rectron will provide basic training, he says the union will call on the DOE to step up its ICT training efforts in order to overcome the issue of teachers' computer-illiteracy.

Nthola believes government should subsidise up to 90% of the cost of the EEE PCs, but no discussions in this regard have taken place yet.

Fidelis says even though Rectron's core capacity is in distribution, its national infrastructure of service providers means it will be able to provide the necessary teacher training without becoming over-stretched.

Comments (4)

Linus said:

Let's hope.

	I agree - the real threat is ignorance - not military. However - I think if teachers really wanted to upskill, they would have found a way themselves. I hope it's not just another wasted effort with a lot of moegoes playing Pacman in class.
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Robert said:

...

Very short sited views if you ask me, if i read this story correctly, ASUS and their partner will take the initiative to do initial training, country wide, which means they have regional offices or branches, so its not like all the teachers have to all come to one place - so you shorten the amount of teaching hours required due to it being done simultaneously country wide - its a step in the right direction that our so called government have been to lacadasical to take. they have been speaking about helping teachers for years and we are still waiting, its our children that are going to benefit from this in the end and its a good step forward from parties that have seen there is a lack if interest or initiative and they are doing something about it. I for one think this is a great plan and i really hope it works and the benefits it is able to provide come to full fruition.

IF you look at this carefully, the units already have windows, im not sure which version, on them so the software is supplied, and im sure it will have some kind of office software on it, they are trying to make it accessible so im sure they will not try and charge extra for other software. This needs to be looked at with a very open mind and not with a narrow minded "cost", "rip-off", "scam" mentality . It looks like this was initiated by sadtu themselves so they are doing what the government is not.

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August 21, 2008 Votes: +0

Benzo said:

Asus does not ake the risk! Why not?

Certainly a good way to get 230000 laptops into the market. Well done ASUS. And then what?? The training of 230000 teachers (make it 200.000) in basic computer skills, the supply of the necessary software (Open or M$oft), training in the proper use of this software. Potential costs for the education department:
If I remember well, M$oft has promised a substantial 750 million in software not so long ago. That would cover R3300 per licence, open office would take care of the office application suite. One problem solved.
Training: would 6x 2-day sessions (=12 days) per teacher be OK? That would be 2.760.000 teaching days or (@ 160 teaching days per annum) 17250 teaching years required for training. This could create problems with the current teacher shortage.
How and what would this minimally trained teacher corps bring to the party of students training in ITC?
A very valid question is off course about the safety and handling of these laptops. Laptops are known to be highly mobile for all the wrong reasons. Question: how long would a laptop be in the possession of the original owner? and what would be the replacement policy? Teachers insuring their precious laptops?
Let's think about it again.

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August 20, 2008 Votes: +0