The Gauteng Online project is still on track, says program co-ordinator Paddy Padayachee.
[VIDEO]Gauteng Online (GOL), an initiative of the Gauteng Education Department, aims to put a minimum of 25 computers in all schools in the province over the next three years. The project is currently in a pilot phase involving 25 schools. The pilot phase is expected to be concluded in February of this year.
Padayachee says that "infrastructure is already established in the 25 schools." He also says that since the launch of the pilot project in November last year, the department has established community centres, called Click Centres, throughout the province and has completed the training of 125 teachers from the 25 pilot schools.
[VIDEO]Padayachee says that early on in the project the department was aware that government did not have the necessary skills to design a system that would meet the requirements of GOL. However, "if we went with just one service provider we would have ended up with a design specific to one vendor."
Five ICT-sector consortiums are taking part in the pilot project, each establishing proposed training systems in each of the 25 schools. The GDE will use the pilot project to decide on suitable solutions that will "meet the requirements of GOL," says Padayachee.
[VIDEO]One of the consortiums taking part in the project is the Sun/MGX consortium which is building its offering around Sun servers and an online portal. Aletha Ling, executive director at MGX, says the consortium believes it is important that whatever system is decided upon by the GDE, it must be something that can be supported over time. "The digital world is not going away ... and it is important that we bring everyone into this world."
Ling says that the GDE has paved the way for the pilot project by providing the required infrastructure for the installation of equipment. She says this infrastructure includes an Internet connection, secure buildings and power requirements. Everything else, including the workstations, learning materials and peripherals, is to be provided by the various consortiums, says Padayachee.
[VIDEO]The Gauteng provincial government has committed R500 million to the project, which aims to equip more than 2500 schools with a minimum of 25 computers over the coming three years.
However, Padayachee says this is not simply about infrastructure. "The broad goals are to contribute to building a human resource capacity in the province ... and improve the human resource capital in ICT in Gauteng. GOL will change the mode of operation of both learners and teachers."
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