Tablets to be provided for pupils
Experts divided on Education Department plan for roll-out at schools, writes Luke Folb
SOUTH Africa’s education system is set for a major overhaul with the introduction of computer tablets for every pupil in the country’s 23 700 government primary and high schools.
The ambitious plan to help prepare youngsters for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has been met with mixed reaction from both education experts and the provincial department of education.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is due to make the announcement and outline the specifics of the programme when he addresses Parliament at next month’s State of the Nation address.
The Department of Basic Education said the programme would include computer coding and robotics classes for Grades 1 to 3 and the digitisation of the curriculum with textbooks, workbooks and teaching material uploaded to the tablets.
Pilot programmes have been introduced or will be introduced this year to rural schools and schools with special needs.
Next year, the department plans to roll out the programme to all Quintile 1 top 3 (no fee) schools, to be completed by 2021.
Western Cape Education Department (WECD) spokesperson Jessica Shelver said the department invested more than R252 million towards e-learning in the 2018/2019 financial year and over R1.2 billion over a fiveyear period.
These projects included smart classrooms with devices for teachers, ICT labs and an e-learning portal with educational materials.
Shelver said six schools had one-toone for pupil: device ratio, and by the end of this year the department would have delivered 32 500 devices.
The WCED said tablets were not the best type of device for all pupils. The department has been running pilot programmes with them at primary schools and with Chromebooks (laptops) at high schools.
Education MEC Debbie Schäfer said there was “a desperate shortage” of teachers and infrastructure. “Given the increasing numbers of learners at our schools, I am always told there is no more money. How is there suddenly money for tablets?” She said the Department of Basic Education (DBE) was digitising state-owned textbooks for pupils, but this did not suit all pupils, with interactive content a better solution. Dr Daniel le Roux from Stellenbosch University’s Department of Information Science called the roll-out “techno-optimism” and was sceptical of the government’s ability to deliver.
“It’s this thinking that we can just throw tablets at a broken education system and we’ll fix our problems through technology, but it doesn’t work like that. It’s also one thing to manage a couple of tablets across a few schools, but to do it on over 23 000 schools is a massive undertaking that needs infrastructure,” said Le Roux.
“I’m certain that tablets will bring a meaningful experience to children, but in terms of learning performance the research is not clear. There is no empirical evidence that you’ll get better learning outcomes.”
Le Roux raised concerns over how these tablets were going to be monitored for content and kept secure and up to date.
The DBE has not yet outlined plans for the safekeeping of the tablets but has said the tablets would be “insulated” against the downloading of content not related to educational purposes. Economist and education specialist Nic Spaull said: “Coding is an important skill for the 21st century but not more important than reading. If you can’t read, you can do very little else at school.
“If we don’t get the basics right in education, then all the work higher up in the system is destined for failure – 61% of our Grade 5 learners can’t do basic maths, 78% of our Grade 4 learners can’t read for meaning in any language.” Spaull added that investment was needed in African languages for Grades 1 to 3, and more needed to be done to coach and train teachers in the classroom.
Dr Mmaki Jantjies from UWC, a researcher in education technology, said extensive research had been done on the use of mobile technology at schools. “We’ve seen there’s an increasing amount of technology across different schools, and this is important for them to tackle the job market later on.
“What is noticeable is the divide in students coming from rural and urban schools, with those coming from rural or Quintile 1 schools struggling at| university when asked to use technology,” she said.
Jantjies said fears over bringing tablets into schools as a way of improving education were justified, but that the challenges faced by society with the 4IR justified the decision.
“We cannot deny that some jobs won’t exist in future, and we have to acknowledge that it’s not about the tablets but the skills and digital literacy that come with them and ensuring that content is localised for the South African curriculum.”
She added there was no way of knowing whether the DBE could be held to their promises without knowing the specifics of the roll-out, which had not yet been made public.