The department will now review and re-evaluate its strategy of rolling out the paperless classroom project.
This came after the DA questioned education MEC, Panyaza Lesufi about tablets that had been recalled to have security devices fitted and which would be redistributed to other schools and not returned to the original recipients.
DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Education, Khume Ramulifho, said of the 88 000 tablets received by Gauteng schools, only 24 293 had been returned to date to have security devices fitted.
Ramulifho said, “More than 60 000 remain without security or tracking devices, leaving them at risk of being stolen.”
He said the department had misled schools by not clarifying its redistribution plans up front. “This is likely to further discourage the return of tablets for security purposes,” Ramulifho said.
The department’s retrieval plan was scheduled from February to the end of August. However, Ramulifho said it was clear that if only a quarter of these devices had been returned to date, the recall of the balance would pose a challenge.
He added that the use of technology in schools was a welcome move, however, the administration and management of this system must be done transparently and in the best interests of pupils.
The department stated that it had distributed 88 000 tablets to schools in which every school received 40 tablets. Education spokesperson Phumla Sekhonyane said these tablets were shared by pupils in each school. Sekhonyane said, “This process revealed that the distribution of tablets does not assist in fast-tracking the realisation of this vision. A new approach was taken which involves the rollout of the project in phases to ensure that each learner has a tablet, each educator a laptop and each classroom an interactive board.”
Sekhonyane added that the benefits of this approach far exceed the 40 tablets per school approach. “It is for this reason that not all
88 000 tablets were distributed back to schools. The current approach is to distribute tablets to each learner in phases.”
Skhonyane revealed that this year, tablets have been distributed to Grade 12 pupils, and the rollout will be carried out until every pupil had a tablet.
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