Johannesburg, 13 Jul 2011
More than R18 million has been lost in the Gauteng Online Schools Project (GOSP), according to a recent report on the programme.
The project has cost about R3 billion since its inception in 2001, and computer equipment worth over R18.5 million has been lost to theft since 2008.
The project is an initiative to build a province-wide school computer network. It aims to create 25-seat computer labs with Internet and e-mail capabilities at all public schools in the province, to be used for curriculum delivery.
The joint initiative between the Gauteng departments of finance and education was expected to connect 2 042 schools by May last year, but this did not materialise.
Massive loss
Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng education spokesperson Khume Ramulifho says security is a major problem.
“Six hundred and thirty-two cases of burglary and theft of the project's computers have been reported, but there has not been even one conviction yet.”
The spokesperson says the value of the stolen resources from the project, according to a recent report compiled by the departments, amounts to R18.5 million.
“This amount is only since 2008. It will be much more if we consider cases since 2001.”
Gauteng finance MEC Mandla Nkomfe also highlighted security as a challenge for the project and adds that another problem is the growing number of schools.
“Schools in Gauteng are increasing exponentially so it's a greater number than was first conceived for the project.”
However, project manager Dick Rayner says this is not a huge issue, since new schools are balanced out by those that close down or merge with other schools.
Labs offline
Ramulifho says the project is essentially failing.
He says it is extremely important that computer training happens not only at the tertiary level, but from primary schooling, and the GOSP is not helping in this regard.
“The project is important and relevant, but poor planning and governance is causing its failure.”
He explains that there is a lack of understanding of exactly what needs to be done to ensure learners benefit. The project is being run by two departments at the same time so there are misunderstandings as to who is responsible for what.
“Only 40% of the schools with labs are online. The other 60% are not connected. So in some cases labs are just being used as store rooms.”
Project boost
In December 2009, 1 509 schools had been given labs via the project. However, now more than a year later, there are currently about 1 700 schools with GOSP labs, says Rayner.
The Department of Finance (DOF) says it will focus on accelerating the project.
Nkomfe said during his budget speech yesterday that the department will allocate “R400 million to the outcome focused on quality education through involvement in the GOSP”.
“As part of our plan to accelerate the implementation of the Gauteng Online Schools Project, we will train 1 200 IT technicians and deploy them to GOSP-enabled schools in the province to address technical problems and enhance the operational efficiency of the system.”
He added that the department's efforts to speed up the process of implementing the GOSP have also given it an opportunity to provide work opportunities and develop a pool of young people with much-needed IT skills.
During her budget speech yesterday, education MEC Barbara Creecy said a further 200 young people have been identified to become education technologists to support teachers in schools to adopt ICT in their teaching strategies.
Systematic resolution
The DOF says part of the R400 million will go towards completing the remaining 595 GOSP computer labs.
“[This will] effectively bridge the digital divide for the remaining 32% of learners in the province.”
As part of the strategy to accelerate the implementation of the project, the departments have introduced Operation Tsoseletso to address challenges experienced with the implementation of GOSP since its inception in 2001.
“Operation Tsoseletso is being rolled out as a pilot to test whether recurring problems, which have hampered the implementation of GOSP, can be resolved in a systematic manner,” says the DOF.
It adds that this project is the revival of the GOSP in order to effectively utilise the infrastructure provided and ensure all labs are fully functional and used by both educators and learners.
Other issues that Operation Tsoseletso would focus on include implementing an integrated security plan and settling electricity bills.
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