E-learning will not be beneficial unless accompanied by the related enablement factors such as computer centre maintenance, connectivity and teacher development.
This according to Murray de Villiers, GM: Africa, Middle East Regional Academic Programme at SAS, who notes sustained training and mentoring of teachers is essential, and co-ordinated collaborative engagement from the corporate sector can help with teacher development.
"The repeated negative reflections in the press and social media indicate South Africa is losing faith in its education system," says De Villiers. "For example, the textbook provision and dissemination failures, underutilised school computer centres, etc."
He believes universities need to collaborate with the private sector, which can provide access to technology and education in the technologies businesses use today. Such partnerships differentiate teaching and learning programmes, says De Villiers.
An example is the Advanced Business Analytics Centre, set up through a partnership between SAS and North West University, which gives students the skills to understand the role analytics can play in businesses' decision-making processes and prepare students to become executives to manage that function.
He explains the students work on real industry projects during their studies, enabling them to make a difference on the first day they are hired, as they already have the experience, skills and knowledge businesses need.
He notes the recent announcement by the Department of Education to up the pass marks for Grade 7, 8 and 9 pupils for 2014 can help get SA closer to global standards, providing some goals for global competitiveness.
However, he says, raising pass marks in itself would probably not help much without also improving the quality of teaching.
"We need teacher development (with appropriate monitoring and evaluation), followed by infrastructural support, for our education system to improve. The corporate sector can play a crucial role in helping with this."
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