the biggest names in technology have
Vodacom and some
of the biggest name
find s in technology have teamed up with the Department of
Education in South Africa to launch a multi-million rand scheme.
The mobile operator
has collaborated
house with Microsoft, Cisco and Mindset Learn to form
the Vodacom Mobile Education Programme to establish nine
information and communications technology (ICT) centres, each serving 200
schools.
The programme,
costing R20 m
business illion, will provide underserviced and
underprivileged schools with access to educational material using cloud
computing services.
Statistics from the
department indicate that just 7 percent of schools in South Africa have a
stocked library and only 10 percent have sufficient computers.
“This venture has a
particular eye on ICT as an enabler, it’s really to provide connectivity and
access and to allow teachers to be able to utilise ICT in a way that
enhances the teachers ability to teach any subject across the grade,” said
Deputy Minister of Basic Education Mohamed Enver Surty.
The initiative will
help towards achieving the government’s 2013 target that all children who have
passed grade 3 education would have had “exposure to ICT services”.
Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys said:
“ICT can be the glue where all this comes together – we can get the information
and centrally we know that it’s the latest quality information through ICT and
distribute it to all the schools in the country and that’s how all our children
will have access to quality education and opportunities”.
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