Gauteng pupils enter digital age

The classroom of the future is digital - tablets and touchscreens have replaced textbooks and blackboards.

Even conversations among pupils in study groups now happen in online chat forums.

For Mthokozisi Xulu, a matric pupil at Boitumelong Secondary School in Tembisa, east of Johannesburg, this is a drastic shift from his first 11 years of schooling.

The 18-year-old is among 5000 pupils taking part in an ambitious project aimed at revolutionising teaching in South Africa .

Seven schools in Gauteng have been selected to be part of the Big Switch On, a project to make classrooms completely paperless.

A similar project in rural Nciba, in the Eastern Cape's Cofimvaba district, is at an advanced stage.

There, a collaboration between the national departments of science and technology and basic education and the CSIR involves 26 schools.

The outcome of this closely monitored programme will influence the government's final policy on the use of tablets at public schools.

Nearly 2000 tables have been issued and 152 teachers trained as part of the Eastern Cape project, implemented in 2012.

Merryl Ford, the CSIR manager for information and communications technology education, said the project had been a success so far and a report was being finalised.

Education expert Graeme Bloch said the digitalisation of education had to happen in South Africa.

"I think we got to get with the ICT, and the fact that it's been piloted in seven schools in Gauteng shows that we can learn from that [before full roll-out]," he said.

However, mathematics expert Aarnout Brombacher said he hoped the project was more than "simply moving to paperless classrooms".

"There are technologies that change the way subjects are defined, allowing pupils to learn in different and exciting ways."

It was crucial for the curriculum to be modernised to take advantage of the tools that digital technology provided , Brombacher said.

The cost of the switch in Gauteng alone is estimated at R17-billion once all 2200 schools in the province are hooked up by 2019.

Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said the pilot involved Grade 7 pupils in two primary schools and all pupils in grades eight to 12 at five other schools making the switch this year.

More than 1400 teachers were trained in preparation for the launch of the pilot project.

Sesi Makena, the principal at Boitumelong Secondary School, said pupils and teachers were excited about the technology.

"Learners don't even bunk school any more. They've been coming to school since January 6 - there's been no absenteeism . they are really showing keen interest in the new technology at the school," she said.

Lesufi said his department spent "just over R14-million" preparing the schools for the project.

Participating schools will use high-speed broadband connectivity by fibre-optic cables and distributed data through a Wi-Fi network.

He said township schools that achieved a 100% pass rate in last year's matric exams would be next in line, but was unable to give a timeframe.

When asked about intermittent electricity supply and broadband problems, Lesufi said that, for now, pupils at participating schools would still receive stationery so that teachers could revert to normal teaching methods should there be power cuts.