The official rollout of the Teacher Laptop Initiative (TLI), which was scheduled to begin in February 2010, has been delayed by a few crucial matters that have to be finalised, says the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC).
“The official rollout of the TLI has thus not yet begun,” says the ELRC.
According to the Government Gazette, permanently employed teachers will be eligible for an allowance to purchase a laptop. Qualifying teachers will receive a monthly taxable allowance of R130 and will be required to fund the difference between the allowance and the monthly repayments of the package.
Repayments will be spread over a period of five years, and more than 400 000 educators in SA are expected to own laptops by 2011.
The council notes that memoranda of understanding (MOUs) between the 10 provisionally accredited suppliers and the ELRC, on behalf of the teacher unions, need to be finalised.
The 10 provisionally accredited suppliers for the first phase of the TLI are Dell/Laptitude, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, MTN, Pinnacle, Sahara Systems, Telkom, Mustek and Vodacom.
The ELRC adds that a further proposal has been submitted to National Treasury to automate the process of stop orders and allowance activation. The plan is to use a single collection agency recognised by or integrated with the Persal system at Department of Basic Education (DOBE) and National Treasury.
“Before this can happen, however, the legal entity representing each consortium must be registered with National Treasury and allocated a stop order code. Stop orders from payroll can only be processed with a National Treasury issued stop order code. The Department of Basic Education is currently in the process of finalising the matter with National Treasury,” explains the ELRC.
The council says centralising the process with an approved service provider would speed up the collecting and distributing of funds and minimise the opportunity for fraudulent activities.
“The process will be finalised once National Treasury approves the proposal,” says the ELRC.
Also outstanding
The council has selected strategic partners for the initiative, which include software suppliers Microsoft, Symantec and Adobe; Dimension Data, which designed the central database to be used by service providers to register the laptop packages purchased by educators; and Intel, which will supply software and provide training for teachers.
However, final and updated pricing still needs to be submitted by consortia in order to populate the central registry developed by Dimension Data.
The code of conduct that teachers will have to sign as undertaking, as well as the application forms that they are required to complete, are currently being finalised between the DOBE and the teacher unions.
Group rollout
The council says it has been informed by the DOBE that the rollout will be done in groups, according to the size of individual provincial education departments and the funds available.
Teachers will receive allowances according to a preference list of educators based on their seniority. Ranks have already been decided and provinces have been instructed that principals will be the first group of educators who will be eligible to purchase a laptop.
The council says once all processes have been finalised, provincial departments will identify and inform educators who qualify for the TLI. Written notification from the departments will then be shown to the accredited service provider, which will allow the teacher and service provider to enter into an agreement.
Share