Government’s big e-learning plan to roll out tablets to schools has been criticised for trying to introduce a digital revolution in the midst of a “stone age”.
Earlier this week, provincial education MEC Mlungisi Mvoko, said the department would be embracing the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) by promoting e-learning.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his State of the Nation address that the government would be replacing school books with tablets over the next six years.
But teacher unions and school governing bodies think the MEC should first focus on the basics of providing safer classrooms, decent toilets, and water and electricity.
The province currently has 426 mud schools and 1,598 school pit latrines, the highest in any province.
School governing bodies and unions said they were not against the move to digitalise, but pointed out that this should not be the priority when school buildings were dilapidated, there was no running water or electricity and pupils had to use the veld as their toilet.
One example of this uneven development in education is the mud school Mzongwana Senior Secondary school in deep rural Ngqeleni.
When the Dispatch called Mzongwana principal Sonny Ngcengce on Thursday he was about to go to town to get zinc sheets to cover the school’s roofless classrooms.
“As we speak the roof has been blown away, and it has been like that since 2016,” said Ngcengce.
He said the school had been damaged by two severe storms, one in 2016 and the other in December.
Their four pit toilets, which are four holes in a cement slab on the ground with wonky zinc sidewalls, had become a safety hazard.
“Just last week a teacher almost fell into one of the holes.”
The principal said while they too wanted to be part of the digital age, “here we are still stuck in the stone age. Our learners use the open veld to relieve themselves. How do we move forward when our pupils are still subjected to this?” asked Ngcengce.
“We would first like to have safer classrooms, decent toilets, and a reliable supply of water and electricity.”
According to Mvoko, between this year and 2023, the department would roll out broadband ICT infrastructure and make sure teachers know how to use digital technology in classrooms.
“The 4IR is upon us and will affect not only how the department operates administratively, but will also require that we prepare learners to thrive in a rapidly changing future.”
The MEC said the department had forged a partnership with Eskom in the province to ensure whenever they provided electricity to a community, they did so for the local school too.
The secretary of the provincial association of SGBs, Mongezi Mashiyi, said the department’s plan to move to the digital age was a good move but its timing was off and the priorities were not in the right place.
“If the department cannot get the basics right, how will they manage rolling out ICT. Their plans are right but the timing is just not right,” said Mashiyi.
Naptosa provincial chief executive Loyiso Mbinda said e-learning was convenient only for schools with proper infrastructure. It was useless for schools with poor infrastructure, he added.
Sadtu provincial secretary Chris Mdingi said the union was objective on the issue rather than being subjective.
“We acknowledge some school infrastructure is dehumanising For those schools without essential standards, the department should first put them in place before rolling out e-learning,” said Mdingi...