Three people were arrested recently after being found in possession of smart boards stolen from paperless classrooms in Gauteng. One of them was arrested on Friday and appeared at the Protea Magistrate Court on Monday‚ where the case was postponed for further investigation.The man was arrested in possession of a smart board after a tracker system installed in it led officials to his Protea Glen‚ Soweto home.On Monday‚ the state opposed bail and said that‚ besides doing further investigations‚ it also needs to establish the legality of the man being in the country. The state said he is a flight risk as he is from Mozambique and has two South African identity documents.Last week‚ another man was arrested in Krugersdorp‚ west of Johannesburg‚ when police pounced on him while he was using the smart board which he had connected to DSTV.The third man was arrested in Mondeor‚ south of Johannesburg‚ for being in possession of a smart board which he claimed he had bought.Acting spokesman for the department Oupa Bodibe said several smart boards have been recovered through the tracking system that has been installed in them early this year.However‚ those that were stolen prior to the tracker system being installed have not been recovered. Bodibe could not say exactly how many smart boards have been recovered nor how many have been stolen.The Gauteng Department of Education introduced paperless classrooms at township schools in the province in an attempt to end traditional blackboard teaching‚ and instead smart boards were installed and pupils‚ mainly Grade 12‚ provided with tablets.The theft of the ICT at schools has not discouraged the spirit of MEC Panyaza Lesufi from continuing to roll out technology to township schools in the province.In his budget speech last week‚ he said the department has allocated R1.062-billion for ICT.Lesufi said that the department intends expanding the project to cover Grade 11 in 2016/17‚ Grades 10 and 9 in 2017/18 and Grade 8 in 2018/19. - TMG Digital/Sowetan..