Minister of education Naledi Pandor has set Mindset Network, a multimedia satellite television network, a challenge: develop a cost-effective solution to change the slate into some kind of laptop.
The minister was speaking at the opening of Mindset Cabanga (a Zulu word meaning "think") today at the Riversands Primary School in Diepsloot. Cabanga is an initiative promoting rural primary schools` access to educational programmes via satellite technology.
Referring to the Negroponte $100 (about R620) laptop and the possibility of using it in schools to combat the problem of access, the minister said: "Let`s move away from thinking that we need to bring in HP computers to every school. We need to think in the context of underdevelopment in rural and township schools."
"We tried that concept a few years ago with a wind-up radio," Hylton Appelbaum, chairman of the board of Mindset Network agreed. "Why can we not take a small laptop and see what we can do?"
The minister also citied quality education and affordability as additional challenges to technological advancements in the education sector in SA.
FET curriculum
Cabanga features video, multimedia and supporting print material aligned to the Further Education and Training (FET) curriculum. Three subjects - mathematics, natural science and technology - will benefit from the initiative, according to Lusanda Jiya, new business development and marketing executive at Mindset Network.
Educators will also be targeted through the special programming, which will offer teaching skills and professional development, Jiya said.
Cabanga is being rolled out through a funding agreement between Mindset, US Agency for International Development (USAID), the South African Department of Education and private business. Cabanga is being run through USAID`s Africa Education Initiative, said Donald Teitelbaum, Charge d`Affaires, US Embassy to SA.
Through Mindset Cabanga, 50 primary schools in the Eastern and Northern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo, will have satellite receivers installed. The onus is on the schools to provide computers for the receiving equipment to be networked, Jiya told ITWeb. She said schools will have to have at least Pentium III computers in order to support the Cabanga initiative.
Government aims to provide 20 000 schools with technological infrastructure over the next four years, the minister said.
"ICT may be used to competently and effectively respond to gaps in education, providing a flexible, adaptable, potentially user-friendly alternative, depending on the approach used."
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