The novel project is sponsored by the government of the African National Congress (ANC), it is entitled Big Switch On (the big ignition) and proposes the change of the boards and chalks for computers: tablets and interactive screens for the teachers, Prensa Latina News Agency reported.
The first school with such a futurist status was inaugurated this Wednesday in the jurisdiction of the capital of Tembisa by the vice-president of the Republic, Cyril Ramaphosa, and the minister of Telecommunications and Postal services, Siyabonga Cwele, among other state dignitaries.
Ntombi Maphanga, teacher of Boitumelong Secondary, mentioned that this is the correct moment to introduce the called e-learning in the South African classrooms, because the majority of the students are very familiar with the high digital and communication technology.
The students prove to be much more interactive, attentive and filled with enthusiasm before the lessons. They enjoy the handling of the tablets and we, the teachers, we can prepare the classes easily with a laptop and a flash memory, said Maphanga.
The plan is to take the initiative Big Switch On, or Schools Without Papers, to most of the educational centers in the main municipalities of Gauteng before the year 2018, pointed out the provincial delegate of the Ministry of Education, Panyaza Lesufi.
In accordance with the official, the government bought 88,000 computers 4G tablets to guarantee the first stage of the program in seven schools pilots: Sunward Park, Thandi Sibeko, Ponelopele Oracle, Boitumelong, Tlamatlama, Tshepisa and Phumolong.
the institutions involved in the plan will be equipped also with a high connectivity level to the web and hardware, and its databases loaded with resources and contents of additional value like the British Encyclopedia or the finished works of William Shakespeare.
Approximately 12,000,000 students rejoined today to classes for the course 2015 of the southern country. The modern instructive system e-learning is being already applied successfully in countries such as India, United States or Japan.
The education keeps being the main priority of the government of the ANC, because it is a vital process to promote the personal and collective development, underlined last October the president of the Republic, Jacob Zuma.
