Scramble for laptops for NSFAS students
The race is on for the Department of Higher Education and Training to secure laptops for National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) students as universities scramble to save the 2020 academic year.
Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande said that 14 of the country’s 26 universities were caught off-guard by Covid-19 and were not ready to immediately implement online teaching and learning.
This is due to many students from poor backgrounds not being able to learn online due to lack of devices and data.
Nzimande said the department will procure laptops for the more than 700 000 NSFAS students who did not have laptops, and was in communication with telecoms companies to provide the students with data.
“Securing a universal access deal with the major mobile network operators around data and connectivity to support remote learning is a priority. We believe we are close to reaching such a deal,” Nzimande said.
Nzimande did not name the universities struggling with the transition to online methods. However, a cursory look at what universities across the country have been communicating provides a clue.
University of Fort Hare spokesperson Tandi Mapukata said the institution had embarked on a project to make available 12 000 laptops with modems and data to allow students to participate in online learning.
“The University of Fort Hare is not in a position to switch over fully to online teaching and learning. However, learning materials continue to be uploaded on Blackboard and a moratorium has been placed on all assessments,” Mapukata said.
Sunday World reported last week that the University of Zululand was also not in a position to immediately offer online learning.
Henk de Jager, vice-chancellor of the Central University of Technology in the Free State, this week wrote to students telling them that most of the online classes had progressed “fairly well” during the orientation period.
“Access to appropriate technology and the internet has been a significant challenge due to the deep inequalities between students, and we are in the process of dispatching 5 000 devices and data bundles to our students, to ensure that you are fully equipped,” wrote De Jager.
The management of the Durban University of Technology (DUT), in a communique to staff and students, said it still had a lot of ground to cover to ensure no student was left behind.
DUT has undertaken a survey to assess the devices and data environment facing its students.
“Preliminary results point to just too many of our students who may not have appropriate devices to go online. While some universities in the country have ‘loaned’ a few thousand devices to their students – the highest number of devices loaned so far by one university being 5 000 – DUT’S challenge is that the need for devices is at least threefold; something that requires a huge capital outlay from the funders/ sponsors of our students,” DUT management said.
“Simply, the university’s financial model was never designed to accommodate the supply of devices and data to our over 33 000 students.”