With a donation of 20 computers and related infrastructure to Tembisa High School, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software market leader, SAP Africa, has changed the course of education in Tembisa in the Ekhuruleni district of Gauteng.
Tembisa High School headmaster, TJ Tsenase, says: "We are the only formerly disadvantaged school in Ekhuruleni able to offer computer literacy as a subject and computer-aided learning for the usual academic subjects. So, the SAP donation has made us the district's school of choice."
Some years ago, the school and parents raised R100 000 to buy and install 20 computers in a media centre. But, with almost 2 000 students in classes of 40 or more, individual students rarely got to operate a computer on their own. "Out of two or three students looking over one another's shoulders, usually only one would actually be hands on with the computer," Tsenase says.
"With SAP's donation of another 20 computers, we can now ensure that every single child has full access to a computer for the entire duration of a lesson. So, we can ensure that every child leaves the school with a marketable skill. Even if someone doesn't go on to tertiary education, at least he or she will be able to operate a computer in an office or even teach others to use a computer.
"Also, our school's strategic plan includes converting its curriculum from an academic to a skills base. The SAP donation gives us a huge boost in that direction."
In addition, the school will use its media centre to train students in the technicalities of setting up and maintaining computer equipment and networks - equipping students for careers in the information and connectivity technology (ICT) sector and building capacity within Tembisa itself. "People here don't have ready access to computer setup or repair services," says Tsenase. "So, many of our graduates will be able to start their own small businesses."
The media centre will also provide the community with unprecedented access to information and, therefore, to the mainstream economy. The donation of computers to Tembisa High is the first such initiative by SAP. Although SAP has always focused on enhancing education through ICT, corporate affairs and alliance manager, Lucky Mondlani, says that "our 30-year, large-scale process experience was beneficial to projects with extended impact - such as the Tertiary Education Project, the ICT Academy of the CIDA City Campus, the Africa Drive Programme, and the Distributed Advanced Strategic System for Industrial e-Learning (Dassie) project.
"With those up and running, we can now turn our attention to the other end of the needs spectrum. In principle, every individual schoolchild that we help to familiarise with technology eventually reduces the need for the large-scale projects."
Having installed the computers and infrastructure for Tembisa High School this year, next year SAP will provide training for the teachers. It will also begin a programme of computer literacy training in rural schools in partnership with organisations such as cellular networks and Microsoft SA that are already providing facilities or software to disadvantaged communities.
"Private public partnerships are the quickest way to roll out vital capabilities to needy communities," Mondlani says. "The more organisations work together, pooling their specialisations, the greater the number of people whose lives can be positively transformed. For instance, our own ERP software is not immediately relevant in a school context. But our in-house and business partner computer literacy and process skills are of an extremely high order. We will therefore use them to reinforce the efforts of others wanting to help bridge the digital divide."
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