Limpopo to speed up e-learning with tablets for its poorest schools

The Limpopo education department has embarked on an ambitious project to give grades one and eight pupils tablets as part of its e-learning project.

Education MEC Polly Boshielo outlined details of the plan during a debate on the basic education department’s budget vote in the national council of provinces on Tuesday.

She said access to technology was “no longer meant for the privileged few but a basic necessity for all”.

“The pandemic has compelled us to accelerate our interventions on the use of digital means of education.”

Her department set aside R228m in this financial year for the rollout of its e-learning initiative to grade one and eight pupils in quintile 1-3 schools (the poorest institutions).

But the department will need R355m to buy tablets for the 142,123 grade one pupils and a further R340m for the 125,645 grade eights.

The pandemic has compelled us to accelerate our interventions on the use of digital means of education.

—  Limpopo education MEC Polly Boshielo

Boshielo said because of budgetary constraints, they would be buying 19,000 and 16,000 tablets respectively for grade one and eight pupils “with the goal of covering all the schools when funding becomes available”.

Meanwhile, the Eastern Cape education department is still battling to recover thousands of tablets loaned to matric pupils last year.

Up until May 27, it was only able to retrieve 36,546 of the more than 47,000 digital devices that were handed out to 510 quintile 1-3 schools.

In September last year the department was interdicted from continuing with the implementation of the controversial R538m e-learning contract and making payments to service provider Sizwe Africa IT Group, pending the hearing of a review of the procurement process.

The application was brought by the State Information Technology Agency (Sita), which alleged the contract was unlawful because it should have been done through them.

Sita is a government information technology agency responsible for procurement for state departments.

It emerged the Eastern Cape education department had piggybacked on an existing IT products and services lease contract between the department of economic development and environmental affairs and Sizwe Africa IT Group.

The department was unsuccessful in its attempt to appeal the judgment.

In a letter dated May 27 to the chairperson for the Eastern Cape’s portfolio committee on education, acting provincial superintendent-general of education Soyisile Nuku confirmed it was liaising with the Sita “to try to settle the matter amicably”.

“The current financial situation of the department unfortunately does not allow for it to commit any funding to the provisioning of tablets to grade 12 pupils at quintile 1 to 3 schools who did not receive it in 2020.”