Pretoria - Deputy Minister in the Presidency responsible for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Youth Development and Administration, Buti Manamela, says Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Education has been significant in simplifying learning.
The Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation on Friday said it has been monitoring progress on the implementation of ICT by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) since 2015.
“What is most pleasing is the way in which different government entities and the private sector have come together to invest in ICT in Education,” said Deputy Minister Manamela.
ICT in education forms part of government’s Operation Phakisa, which is designed to fast track the implementation of solutions on critical service delivery issues highlighted in the National Development Plan (NDP).
According to the department, the DBE has to date provided quarterly reports to the DPME on the progress made with regard to ICT implementation in schools and training institutions.
The Deputy Minister undertook a monitoring visit to Upington in the Northern Cape with DBE Deputy Minister Enver Surty to monitor the progress that the department has made at Carlton Van Heerden High School, Rosendal Primary School, and Siyanda teacher and ICT resource centre.
Previous visits were held by both the Deputy Ministers on 20 and 24 June 2016 in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal to monitor if delivery had been implemented. The visits also included monitoring of Vodacom ICT Teacher Centres in the two provinces.
The monitoring of the Operation Phakisa ICT in Education is guided by provinces that are expected to finalise their provincial Frameworks and provide monthly reports to the DBE by the 28th of every month.
Thus far, the department said, most provinces have provided their ICT sector plans and aligned them with the Operation Phakisa Framework.
“Strides are also being made towards making ICT a primary tool of teaching and learning. From the inception of the Operation Phakisa lab process, 2 430 schools (100.2%) have been connected out of 2 425 that were to be connected by end of September 2016.
“A total of 54% of the targeted 24 000 public schools have been connected to date,” the department said.
Devices and connectivity progress is monitored against the Universal Services Access Obligation project (Government Gazette 37718), that compels the four Network operators (Vodacom, MTN, Cell-C and Neotel) to connect schools and provide them with End User Devices.
The connectivity solution includes, for each school, a mobile trolley with devices (24 tablets for learners, 3 laptops for teachers, 2 printers, and 1 projector, 1 server, wireless access point, and 1 e-Beam).
As of September 2016, the DBE has also achieved milestones in digital content provision, including:
- Giving access to OVDH platform to 951 schools;
- Making the learner component of the DBE Cloud is now live and online;
- Providing a total of 120 digital titles of Grade 4 to 9 Natural Sciences, Technology, Physical Science, and Mathematics have been created, consisting workbooks and 24 Grade 10 to 12 Physical Science and Mathematics Textbooks;
- Supplying 12 Interactive Workbooks for Grade 1, and a further 12 were sponsored by the MTN Foundation for Grade R to 4; and
- Providing 258 district officials with ICT skills in partnership with Intel and Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS).
The ICT Operation Phakisa in Education Lab was launched by President Jacob Zuma in October 2015. - SAnews.gov.za
