GautengOnline, the Gauteng Education Department`s R500 million project to equip each school in the province with a minimum of 25 computers took a giant leap forward last week with the announcement of its business partners. The six principle partners in the project are IBM, Sahara, Mustek, MGX, Sun Microsystems and Unisys.
Gauteng Education MEC Ignatius Jacobs says a project of this magnitude is not possible without the full participation of the ICT industry. "As a matter of fact, the need for public-private partnerships, wherein the industry plays a leading role in the supply and standardisation of ICT technology, is spelt out in several global, national and provincial policy directives. The pilot project and the roll-out of the full Gauteng Online programme will put to test the commitments of various partners."
Speaking last month at the launch of the 25-school pilot project, Jacobs said: "R500 million has been set aside over the next three years for this programme. The amount for this fiscal year is R100 million. However, we are expecting considerable savings to come through support from our industry partners."
The consortiums chosen to participate in the GautengOnline project, many of which represent a broad base of industry specialists, will contribute hardware and software to the project, and a range of solutions will be provided by industry partners. One of the industry partners, Mustek, a consortium of 13 different partners, will provide both Linux- and Microsoft-based solutions to the GautengOnline programme.
Tony Church, project manager for the Mustek GautengOnline consortium, says Mustek has donated five pilot sites to the project. He adds that two of the sites will run Linux and the other three will be Microsoft-based, "which will allow the Gauteng Department of Education to evaluate the optimum configuration of products for the project".
Jabu Moleketi, MEC for Finance and Economic Affairs, says the benefit of the GautengOnline project will be significant for the ICT sector. According to Moleketi, provincial government procurement from primarily IT vendors between January and December 2000 amounted to more than R70 million, a figure he says will increase significantly over the next three years. "The GautengOnline allocation of R500 million over three years will add considerably to this investment in ICTs."
Moleketi says the GautengOnline investment will equip around 2 500 Gauteng public schools with computer equipment, as well as offering e-mail and Internet access to more than 1.5 million learners and 63 000 educators in the province.
However, he notes that the provincial government is aware there is a risk attached to the project: "If GautengOnline is going to be a successful catalyst for ICT sectoral growth, the hidden capitalist hand called competition must be put in place immediately to improve affordability, availability, accessibility and other aspects of quality of service."
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