Re-shaped Educational System

In today’s world, if your company is not keeping pace with new innovation and technology it is likely that it will not last very long. In order to survive a digital society, companies must embrace and keep pace with changes in innovation and technology, this will enable them to grow and ultimately succeed in a digital economic climate that clearly shows no signs of slowing down.

I remember back in school I used to ponder (okay okay I used to wonder), isn’t there anything that can be done with this heavy backpack on my shoulder. When the Gauteng Provincial government announced the launch of the e-Learning solution aimed at allowing learners to access e-books on Tables replacing printed textbooks, I couldn’t help but commend them for such an innovative way of minimizing the heavy backpacks learners have to carry around to school.

Yes textbooks played an enormous role, their lifespan is 3 to 5 years and what happens after that? They become obsolete and will need an updated version. But technology has opened up a whole new world of opportunities for learning and teaching.

Obviously for some people the word “Technology” and “Tablets” means thousands of Rands. Tablets are quite pricey, but do you want know something really really amazing? eBooks cost way less than their printed versions!

Sunward Park High School in the Gauteng province is one of the first schools where the project was implemented. According to the deputy principle Mr. Enoch Thango, Parents were already spending an average of R1 800 on textbooks every year .when they started rolling out the project they were able to buy two different tablets at the start, a seven inch one for R1 000 and a 10 inch one for R2 000. Most of their textbooks come from MacMillan or Pearson’s, and they were able to negotiate a big discount on three year licenses for eBook versions, so it only costs R300 per learner each year.

Tablets can actually hold hundreds of textbooks on one device, plus homework and other files, eliminating the need for physical storage of books, and making huge back – breaking school bags a thing of the past. Obvious cost savings benefits here. Even though the initial price of a tablet may be prohibitive, they are not that expensive and their prices continue to drop making them increasingly affordable.

Now the same applies to the Education System, it needs to keep up with innovation and technology if it plans on producing quality genius pupils. Better the strategy to strike while the iron is hot than try play catch-up. Our educational system has seen some cracks of late and be it that a new wave of virtual transformation is upon us, I applaud the initiative and hope the roll-out will be implemented successfully across the country.

Article by Pamela Kunene

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