The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng has called for the termination of the Gauteng Online contract with the SMMT Telematics Consortium that was appointed as the service provider in December 2007.
“This project has been characterised by poor management and non-adherence to the service level agreement. The DA is extremely concerned that consideration is now being given to renewing this contract which is due to end in December,” says DA Gauteng education spokesperson Khume Ramulifho.
Gauteng Online was initiated in 2002 to create a sustainable, school-based e-learning environment.
Flagship fail?
Ramulifho adds that the Gauteng Department of Finance conducted an internal audit and concluded that the Gauteng Online primary objectives have not been achieved, schools are not able to effectively implement a technology-enabled learning environment, learners are deprived of opportunities to develop, the IT infrastructure in schools is an under-utilised, and schools and the department are not getting value for money in respect of the project.
“SMMT...have utterly failed in this project and need to be replaced with a competent company that can deliver value in this crucial area of education.”
However, the Gauteng Department of Finance yesterday said internal control measures were put in place on the project following the audit, in line with the recommendations made in the report. It also said that at the time, of the 1 200 labs that had been deployed, only about 61 had connectivity.
“The Gauteng Online programme is one of the provincial government's flagship information and communications technology projects. It exists not just to provide computer literacy, but to support the delivery of quality basic education,” said finance MEC Mandla Nkomfe yesterday.
Tightened monitoring
With regards to the SMMT contract, he said it comes to an end in the first quarter of next year. “We are obliged to follow all the required procurement and supply chain management processes. We are going to be as transparent as possible. We are not going to be underground.”
The total budget for this project over a five-year-period is R2 billion and, so far, approximately R1.3 billion has been spent. This translates to approximately 65% that was spent on the project, while 71% of the project deliverables have been achieved to date, said the MEC.
“This shows that we have made significant progress on implementing this project. Since 2009, in particular, we have tightened our monitoring mechanisms on this project and have been insisting on performance from SMMT and accountability in line with the service level agreement.”
Internet requests
He added that the rollout of Gauteng Online is progressing as planned. The focus is on building 637 computer labs by the end of this financial year. This will bring the number of labs successfully installed to 2 199, which is the complete scope of the project. About 1 562 schools have had the project implemented already.
“We need to emphasise the point that the Gauteng Online network is connected, fully functional and delivering an e-learning environment in public schools where it has been installed.” In the period to May this year, more than 708 000 learners, and a further 38 000 educators, used the Gauteng Online network every day.
'They have Gauteng Online user IDs, passwords and e-mail addresses. These figures are substantiated by significant traffic across the Gauteng Online network which demonstrates that over 40 million Internet page requests are delivered to schools over a rolling average of seven days. This demonstrates the fact that we are moving with the necessary speed to narrow the digital divide.”
The MEC also said training on the use of computer laboratories has been rolled out to all schools with Gauteng Online facilities to enhance the ability of educators to teach in laboratories.
Mobile labs
Schools are connected via a private network, with over 107 points of presence erected, that service all the schools in the province. “These schools enjoy access at between 1Mbps and 40Mbps depending on the concentration of schools on any single base station.”
Also, a total of 1 492 labs have been converted to open source. This solution has greater flexibility, reliability and stability, and does not attract licence costs, according to Nkomfe.
“We have also deployed a total of nine mobile labs with satellite dishes mounted on the roofs capable of providing Internet access, 19 computer workstations, with an on-board generator and air conditioner. They are mainly used to support the schools that do not yet have a laboratory.
Our buses visit 461 schools per annum on average, with 90 users per bus per day. This translates into 41 490 users per annum on average, an indication that we are reaching out to ensure that learners are computer literate and are able to browse the Internet by the time they leave school.”
Master replacement
The project was in the past plagued by security issues; however, the MEC says government does not incur any additional costs associated with theft since the nature of the contract is that of a master operating lease.
This means in situations where computer equipment is stolen from the Gauteng Online labs, SMMT has 30 days within which to replace it as per the service level agreement.
“We never said that implementing a project of this magnitude will be easy. As such, there are many operational challenges that we work to mitigate every day. We are implementing what has never been done anywhere in SA. This is the largest cloud computing initiative in the Africa and certainly one of the largest such projects in the world. We need to be proud of that,” said Nkomfe.
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