Pupils from Protea Glen Secondary School in Soweto will no longer have to lug textbooks to school. Technology has lightened their load, and promises to give them the edge. “A dream we never realised is finally here. Our children can finally take their education seriously now that they see their government is taking their education seriously,” said Joseph Mabaso, the prinicipal of Protea Glen Secondary School in Soweto.The school was recently given a technological upgrade for its Grade 12 pupils as part of the Gauteng education department “Paperless Classroom” project, piloted early this year.Each of the 258 matric pupils received Huawei tablets, the teachers given laptops and their eight classrooms installed with two interactive boards, all with complete internet connectivity.The Times visited the township school to take a closer look at the project.For most of the pupils, the new mobile equipment — fitted with tracking devices and internet access — comes at a time when they need it most.Rendani Singo, 18, used to spend between R30 and R50 on data for his smartphone to do research online for his school assignments.He said the use of technology was important and that the new devices would allow him and his peers a better chance at improving their academic skills.“The time allocated for tests and activities will also help us work faster, which will come in handy during the exams as some of us never get to finish our papers,” he added.Singo and his 24 classmates of Grade 12(A1) navigate their way through their tablets, which are connected to the 3D LED interactive boards, as their teachers give lessons.Life Sciences teacher Sweetness Radebe takes the pupils through the principles of genetics using the interactive board, loading the 45-minute lesson she prepared for her class.More than 9000 Gauteng teachers and subject advisors have been trained and 375 high schools, mainly in township and rural areas, selected for the programme.The provincial education department has projected costs of R17-billion over four years, some of which are covered by the private sector and other government agencies, including the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre and Telkom.But not everyone believes the project will benefit the province’s matric pupils.Hugo Vermeulen, head of Solidarity Helping Hand’s School Support Centre, criticised education MEC Panyaza Lesufi’s decision to distribute tablets to pupils at impoverished schools proved he was not "in touch with the real needs in poor communities"...