Technology has a significant role to play in improving the quality of education in the Eastern Cape and helping the citizens of this province to develop the skills required to get meaningful jobs and become economically active - locally and abroad.
That's the view of Mteto Nyati, managing director of Microsoft South Africa, who says it is encouraging that technology tools, like computers and the Internet, are being increasingly integrated into learning and teaching in schools across the country.
Nyati was speaking at the signing of a strategic partnership between Microsoft and the Eastern Cape Department of Education (DoE) in Pretoria. The Education Alliance Agreement will enable the two entities to work together in implementing a development, expansion and use of ICT in education plan in the province.
“Because information technology and education are so critical to creating economic opportunities, it is vitally important to keep improving technology access in our provinces and rural areas, and foster innovative teaching and learning methods. This equips students outside of the big cities with the practical skills they need to thrive in today's knowledge economy,” said Nyati. This is aligned with government's rural development strategy.
Education is one of the cornerstones of sustainable economic growth, said Nyati. As such, Microsoft helps drive the professional development of teachers through tools, pedagogy and access to information and communication technology - both for classroom use, and for the administration of education.
Eastern Cape DoE's Education MEC, Mahlubandile Qwase, says: “This partnership will contribute to strengthening the department's programme of implementing ICT and improving the quality of education in schools.”
Since 2003, Microsoft's Partners in Learning programme has trained more than 25 000 teachers across South Africa, impacting more than 2.5 million learners.
“For years, it has been too easy to assume that just because people didn't have opportunities, they didn't have talent. The digital age is helping prove those assumptions wrong. Not only does every single person have the potential to make a difference, but the right use of technology can help unlock that potential and create opportunities for everyone,” said Nyati, a graduate of St Johns College in Mthatha.
The PiL programme globally scales teacher professional development and innovative approaches to ICT integration in the R-12 space and pre-service training institutions.
This undertaking supports the Education Ministry's ambitious goal of seeking to ensure that learners and teachers in public schools will be ICT capable by 2013. This will continue a seven-year partnership between Microsoft and the Department of Basic Education to improve access to, and use of, technology in SA's primary and secondary schools.
Nyati believes there is a clear imperative to prepare the country's 12 million learners for the digital workplace that awaits them.
“In South Africa, only 30% of schools have access to ICT and only 10% have Internet access at this point. We are collaborating with the DoBE to overhaul these statistics,” Nyati says.
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