Gauteng teachers have become the first to receive laptops, but a widespread roll-out will be slow as teacher unions note that partnerships with suppliers have yet to be finalised.
The South African Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu) says it has partnered with iBurst to supply laptops to teachers in Gauteng as part of the Teacher Laptop Initiative (TLI). The union says the first implementation was to a single school in Soweto and it expects another 1 500 laptops to be handed out over the next week.
This follows the publishing of the list of preferred suppliers by the Department of Basic Education in December, paving the way for teachers to acquire computers from approved vendors on credit terms.
Permanently employed teachers are eligible for an allowance to purchase a laptop and would be provided with a stipend of R130 per month for a laptop package worth a total of R3 120.
Ronald Nyathi, Sadtu regional secretary for Gauteng, says the project would ensure all teachers have working laptops.
The initiative, which was supposed to have been phased in from 1 July 2009, was only introduced at the end of August, following departmental delays. The project will be rolled out over a period of two years and all educators should be provided with laptops by 2011.
Microsoft SA, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Lenovo, Telkom, Sahara, Symantec, Dimension Data, Dell, Fujitsu, Vodacom, MTN, Mustek and Adobe have all been named as preferred suppliers.
President of the National Professional Teachers' Organisation of SA Nkwai Ramasehla notes there are still “formalities” which would only be finalised by the end of February.
He emphasises that this would not affect the 2011 deadline, and computer training programmes for teachers would also be implemented.
The TLI, managed by the Education Labour Relations Council, aims to equip about 400 000 teachers with laptops in an effort to improve the overall quality of education in public schools.
Following the gazetted terms, teachers will be expected to source the laptop packages, which meet the department's minimum requirements and conditions, on their own.
The laptops must have a 160GB hard drive, wireless LAN, Ethernet LAN and voice-fax modem Internet connectivity and a Windows XP, or higher, operating system.
The laptop must be loaded with Microsoft Office software, which will be available under a Department of Basic Education-Microsoft agreement to the teachers at a discounted price. The department will also provide content, such as a school administration package and national curriculum materials, which will be installed on the laptop.
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