Date: 03/02/2004
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government
Title: I Jacobs: Statement on GautengOnline and status quo at schools
STATEMENT BY THE GAUTENG MEC FOR EDUCATION, IGNATIUS JACOBS, ON THE LAUNCH ON THE ROLL OUT OF GAUTENGONLINE AND STATUS QUO AT SCHOOLS SINCE REOPENING, HAMLET SCHOOL, 3 February 2004
GautengOnline
In 2001, the Premier, and subsequently myself, announced that by 2006 we will ensure that each learner and educator will have access to the Internet and also have an e-mail address to be able to communicate with the world.
We committed ourselves that all schools in the province will have computer laboratories so that all children in Gauteng schools would be able to join their counter-parts throughout the world and face the challenges of the 21st century.
The province saw the need to invest more than R500 million in this venture because convergence of information technology and communication technology to form the new field of information and communication technology (ICT) has had a revolutionary impact on the way we live and learn.
ICT has also emerged as the most prominent technology to have a revolutionary effect on the lives of people across the world. This convergence has brought about the Information Age, the Knowledge Era, the New Economy and the Information Society - popular concepts in use today.
In the realm of education, the cornerstone for the creation of knowledge societies, and ICTs, the delivery mechanism that underpins it, a number of key issues need to be placed in context if we are to understand the impact of GautengOnline will have within a South African and indeed African context.
We believe that the knowledge era would bring with it relevance of an education system that will successfully meet the skills of the labour market. Our investment in our children is therefore investment in the future of our country, and this contribution would be fundamental in facing the challenges of poverty reduction, job creation and economic growth and development.
I am happy to announce that by the end of March 2004 we would have rolled out computer laboratories to 1 100 schools. We have currently completed installations of equipment in 120 schools, and a further 230 schools are almost to be completed. We expect to have completed 500 schools by the end of February 2004.
This completion includes installation of equipments, orientation of educators, and immediate access to the Internet and use of e-mail. This project will benefit more than 500 000 school children throughout the province.
There are six suppliers who have got the tender from Gauteng Department of Education and are currently responsible for the rollout. These are: Business Connection, Dell, Hewlett Packard, Mustek, Pinnacle and Sahara.
Each has been allocated schools and is working on a very tight schedule, and we believe that they will be able to achieve our goal. This has been done in a phased approach.
We are encouraged by the fact that GautengOnline is galvanised by inter- and multi-disciplinary collaborations between the private and public sector. The development of strong private sector partnerships to assist public sector delivery cannot be over emphasised. Your attendance today bears testimony to that fact.
It has been very encouraging that attempts to vandalise or steal these resources have failed. This has been due to the involvement of communities and the manner in which the security has been arranged for these laboratories.
This is an indication that the future of our children and country is in our collective hands.
I believe it is necessary to read some of the e-mails we have received from learners, educators and principals in the past few days, since they logged on for the first time.
The tenth day statistics
It is with pride to inform you, though we are yet to finalise the audit, and give you some light with respect to the information on the level of provisioning for education in the province.
There are just over 1,6 million learners in the province. We have once again seen another increase in the number of learners in our province. The overwhelming majority of these learners are in public schools and in disadvantaged communities.
An interesting trend that we have observed with great interest is that many children return back into public institutions from private institutions. This is a clear indication of confidence in our public education system.
An important trend that continues each year is that many parents want to send their children to schools that perform well. Schools that become full, both in townships and suburbs are because of their academic, sports and arts, and extra-curricular excellence.
This is encouraging, as parents want the best for their children. This has also shown that the myth that only former Model C schools are the best is evaporating.
This has led to some schools being overcrowded and pressure being put in their resources and space. We have put in place measures to make sure that all these schools will have necessary resources needed.
We have noticed that many of the people that had problems with admission of their learners at schools were actually parents who do not register on time. We will continue once again to make sure that the public is mobilised to register on time.
In August last year, we established admission teams throughout the province. These teams have ensured that all learners' queries by parents and the public in general have been attended to. They have placed each child despite some pressure points we had in the province.
It is regrettable that some very few schools continue to act against policy and refuse to admit learners because of their parent's failure to pay school fees. Sometimes they also withhold reports.
Some want to pursue discrimination by misuse of the right to educate their children in their home language. We have adopted a pragmatic approach to resolving all these tensions in communities. We have received very promising and positive attitude, which would ensure that we address problems of parallel medium, and so called Zulu or Afrikaans schools.
I want to thank the role played by the media by bringing to our attention some of the challenges we had to address, but most importantly by informing the public about our services so that we could be able to assist them and find space for their children.
Thank you.
Enquiries: Mr Lebelo Maloka, MEC's Spokesperson Tel: (011) 355 1509
Cell: 083 310 2057
E-mail: lebelo@ananzi.co.za
Issued by: Department of Education, Gauteng Provincial Government
3 February 2004
Source: SAPA
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government
Title: I Jacobs: Statement on GautengOnline and status quo at schools
STATEMENT BY THE GAUTENG MEC FOR EDUCATION, IGNATIUS JACOBS, ON THE LAUNCH ON THE ROLL OUT OF GAUTENGONLINE AND STATUS QUO AT SCHOOLS SINCE REOPENING, HAMLET SCHOOL, 3 February 2004
GautengOnline
In 2001, the Premier, and subsequently myself, announced that by 2006 we will ensure that each learner and educator will have access to the Internet and also have an e-mail address to be able to communicate with the world.
We committed ourselves that all schools in the province will have computer laboratories so that all children in Gauteng schools would be able to join their counter-parts throughout the world and face the challenges of the 21st century.
The province saw the need to invest more than R500 million in this venture because convergence of information technology and communication technology to form the new field of information and communication technology (ICT) has had a revolutionary impact on the way we live and learn.
ICT has also emerged as the most prominent technology to have a revolutionary effect on the lives of people across the world. This convergence has brought about the Information Age, the Knowledge Era, the New Economy and the Information Society - popular concepts in use today.
In the realm of education, the cornerstone for the creation of knowledge societies, and ICTs, the delivery mechanism that underpins it, a number of key issues need to be placed in context if we are to understand the impact of GautengOnline will have within a South African and indeed African context.
We believe that the knowledge era would bring with it relevance of an education system that will successfully meet the skills of the labour market. Our investment in our children is therefore investment in the future of our country, and this contribution would be fundamental in facing the challenges of poverty reduction, job creation and economic growth and development.
I am happy to announce that by the end of March 2004 we would have rolled out computer laboratories to 1 100 schools. We have currently completed installations of equipment in 120 schools, and a further 230 schools are almost to be completed. We expect to have completed 500 schools by the end of February 2004.
This completion includes installation of equipments, orientation of educators, and immediate access to the Internet and use of e-mail. This project will benefit more than 500 000 school children throughout the province.
There are six suppliers who have got the tender from Gauteng Department of Education and are currently responsible for the rollout. These are: Business Connection, Dell, Hewlett Packard, Mustek, Pinnacle and Sahara.
Each has been allocated schools and is working on a very tight schedule, and we believe that they will be able to achieve our goal. This has been done in a phased approach.
We are encouraged by the fact that GautengOnline is galvanised by inter- and multi-disciplinary collaborations between the private and public sector. The development of strong private sector partnerships to assist public sector delivery cannot be over emphasised. Your attendance today bears testimony to that fact.
It has been very encouraging that attempts to vandalise or steal these resources have failed. This has been due to the involvement of communities and the manner in which the security has been arranged for these laboratories.
This is an indication that the future of our children and country is in our collective hands.
I believe it is necessary to read some of the e-mails we have received from learners, educators and principals in the past few days, since they logged on for the first time.
The tenth day statistics
It is with pride to inform you, though we are yet to finalise the audit, and give you some light with respect to the information on the level of provisioning for education in the province.
There are just over 1,6 million learners in the province. We have once again seen another increase in the number of learners in our province. The overwhelming majority of these learners are in public schools and in disadvantaged communities.
An interesting trend that we have observed with great interest is that many children return back into public institutions from private institutions. This is a clear indication of confidence in our public education system.
An important trend that continues each year is that many parents want to send their children to schools that perform well. Schools that become full, both in townships and suburbs are because of their academic, sports and arts, and extra-curricular excellence.
This is encouraging, as parents want the best for their children. This has also shown that the myth that only former Model C schools are the best is evaporating.
This has led to some schools being overcrowded and pressure being put in their resources and space. We have put in place measures to make sure that all these schools will have necessary resources needed.
We have noticed that many of the people that had problems with admission of their learners at schools were actually parents who do not register on time. We will continue once again to make sure that the public is mobilised to register on time.
In August last year, we established admission teams throughout the province. These teams have ensured that all learners' queries by parents and the public in general have been attended to. They have placed each child despite some pressure points we had in the province.
It is regrettable that some very few schools continue to act against policy and refuse to admit learners because of their parent's failure to pay school fees. Sometimes they also withhold reports.
Some want to pursue discrimination by misuse of the right to educate their children in their home language. We have adopted a pragmatic approach to resolving all these tensions in communities. We have received very promising and positive attitude, which would ensure that we address problems of parallel medium, and so called Zulu or Afrikaans schools.
I want to thank the role played by the media by bringing to our attention some of the challenges we had to address, but most importantly by informing the public about our services so that we could be able to assist them and find space for their children.
Thank you.
Enquiries: Mr Lebelo Maloka, MEC's Spokesperson Tel: (011) 355 1509
Cell: 083 310 2057
E-mail: lebelo@ananzi.co.za
Issued by: Department of Education, Gauteng Provincial Government
3 February 2004
Source: SAPA
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