Mpumalanga’s matric pupils made more than 72,000 attempts over eight days to access undesirable websites, including porn sites.
But their efforts to visit the unsolicited sites between August 17 and 24 using tablets that were issued by the provincial education department were blocked.
According to a technical report from the service provider contracted to the provincial education department, the pupils’ attempts “could be intentional or unintentional”.
“For example, a pupil will be directed to an URL or web address to download an application form for a bursary only to find that it’s one of those sites but still the firewall will block access to that site.”
The department asked the service provider to investigate the usage of the tablets after demands from parents of grade 12 pupils at Masana Secondary School in Bushbuckridge for it to retrieve the digital devices because children were “misusing” them.
The Sunday Times reported on August 14 that a teacher at Masana Secondary School, who asked pupils to use their tablets to complete work, came across a pupil watching pornography.
However, the technical report, which the department shared with TimesLIVE Premium, stated: “Masana Secondary pupils could not be identified as being among the top 10 pupils who were frequent users attempting to access pornography.”
It stated that confidential statistics were shared (with the department) “which may not be made public under any circumstances as it will victimise the pupils”.
The document listed several different porn sites which were among the 72,000 unsolicited sites that pupils across the province unsuccessfully tried to access.
“Common URLs have been detected linked to the IP address of the actual user/pupil, which maps exactly who the user is and from which school, so the proper interventions can be made.”
The report stated that an alert will be displayed on pupils’ tablets immediately when they tried to access a blocked site, which reads: “You have tried to access a web page that is in violation of your internet usage policy.”
TimesLIVE Premium has learnt that staff members employed by the service provider, who visited Masana Secondary School on August 17, requested pupils to use devices for educational purposes only.
The staff members told pupils that they will be closely monitoring their usage of the tablets.
All pupils have signed a consent form that binds them to conduct themselves in a manner that is keeping to their school code of conduct.
— Jasper Zwane, Mpumalanga education department spokesperson
Mpumalanga education department spokesperson Jasper Zwane told TimesLIVE Premium that “it is not possible for pupils to bridge the firewalls using the tablets and the sim cards provided by the department”.
“The system enables the service provider to see instances where there were attempts to access undesirable sites which are blocked.”
But he acknowledged that there may be pupils “who might use other gadgets to do this or remove the sim card and insert theirs to access the sites”.
“The department spoke to a number of principals and grade 12 learners who say these tablets are very helpful and resourceful for their studies. This means that the majority of the pupils are using the tablets for the intended purpose.”
As part of the Ubuhlebuzile e-learning programme launched on April 5, 55,000 tablets were distributed to matric pupils attending quintile 1 to 3 schools (poor schools) as well as 6,700 laptops to teachers.
The tablets contain e-textbooks, previous question papers and study guides for grade 12 pupils.
Zwane said that all users “are categorically allowed to access only identified sites approved by the department to assist improve the performance of the class of 2022 and beyond”.
“The department is providing pupils and teachers with data every month to enable easy access to the learning and study material, most of which is zero-rated.”
He said “pupils, being children, may explore means to access undesirable sites, however the appointed service provider is able to track these unwarranted tendencies”.
“All pupils have signed a consent form that binds them to conduct themselves in a manner that is keeping to their school code of conduct.”
He said ICT (information and communications technology) co-ordinators have been alerted to oversee the misuse of the devices by pupils.
The chair of the governing body of Masana Secondary School, Isaac Mthethwa, referred queries to treasurer Margaret Ngomane, who could not be reached for comment.
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