ICT Education Partnerships

1) The problem

The 4IR presents several changes currently. This is underpinned by 4 drivers: ubiquitous high-speed internet, AI, big data and cloud computing.

The labour market demands much higher levels of agility than ever before.  The nature of jobs are also changing towards higher-skilled jobs despite automation. And therefore, Education needs to produce school leavers that are equipped for this new environment. 

Rural schools in South Africa have limited internet connectivity, device and content access.

2) Proposal:

Provision of a full tailoured solution including connectivity, devices, content, asset maintenance, data, skills development. This will be achieved through a partnership, limited cost and unpaid for provision. In other words - partners of these services will make provision collectively to achieve impact. 

3) Sustainability:

Longer term, some services will be converted to Micro enterprise provision in the community - not only will this create jobs but also ensure long term provision. 

Rural schools in South Africa have limited internet connectivity, which is critical for modern education and school administration. The internet can improve the quality of education in many ways. It opens doorways to a wealth of information, knowledge and educational resources, increasing opportunities for learning in, and beyond, in the classroom. A limiting factor in the provision of internet to rural schools is access to network infrastructure of a bandwidth adequate to service the school needs. Most of the rural schools do not have access to any broadband infrastructure due to the costs associated and the poor return on investment for internet service providers.

There are 11 500 rural schools in South Africa with over 5 million children. Most of these schools are quintile 1 - 3 schools. They barely meet the literacy and numeracy acceptance levels. 

By improving access to connectivity, devices and connectivity - we can help close the education gap through innovative methods. The traditional methods are just not working to close the gap. At the current rate - we will never achieve equal education. 

The solution is to close the gap through ICT provision delivered through a partnership model. No one institution or organization can do this on their own. But if we partner together and contribute our skills and expertise - we can collectively make this happen and close the gap. 

I would like to pilot this with a community in 3 provinces that have approximately 800 schools. 

The solutions would contain the following:

1) Connectivity: fibre or microwave fibre

2) Devices: refurbished devices from large corporates

3) Content curated and situated on an exciting, user friendly platform. 

4) Device and infrastructure maintenance and repairs: delivered by firms but later move to newly formed micro enterprises in these communities

5) Data to help inform us of reach and impact so we can tailor and adjust

The department of education in South Africa has given us full support and offered to help where they can. They have committed to adopting if we can develop a sustainable solution. 

We have already secured 8 private sector partners to help deliver the solution. 

Target population: Rural communities in South Africa

Poverty and inequality are some of the major developmental challenges that are facing South Africa after ten years of democracy. 

During the past decade considerable efforts have been undertaken to address
poverty and to overcome inequality in South Africa. This effort has been
enhanced specifically with the dawn of democracy in 1994. The South African
Government, with its Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) and
Growth, Employment and Redistribution Strategy (GEAR) formulated
programmes and projects within these macro economic policies to address
poverty amongst the previously disadvantage groups and rural communities.
Although significant progress has been made with regard to poverty reduction, inequality in South Africa still exists. The gap between the have and have-nots has become bigger as illustrated by the Gini-coefficient and income shares.

The Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on education in South Africa has been enormous. Millions of children have lost up to half their scheduled school days for 2020 as government closed schools to prevent the spread of the disease.

 However, the full impacts of the pandemic, and its associated lockdowns and social distancing measures, will only be understood in the coming months and years as it becomes clear whether students received enough of the foundation in this year.

 According to Unesco, more than 1.5 billion learners in 165 countries were affected by Covid-19 school closures. “Never before have we witnessed educational disruption on such a scale,” said Unesco director general Audrey Azoulay.

  What became increasingly clear as the lockdown wore on was that school closures only entrenched existing inequalities in our education system. The children who were already most at risk of being excluded from a quality education, and the benefits of an education, were the most affected: the kids without books, and without the devices and data needed to take part in online teaching and learning.

The combination of the post apartheid situation in SA, the education gap in rural communities and the impacts of Covid are catastrophic. We need urgent and innovative change to come out of this and not expand the gaps even further. These communities are getting left behind. 

1. It is technology focused and encompasses various elements of technology

2. It is addressing a catastrophic need and urgency

3. Beneficiaries are from the lowest and rural communities in South Africa and dont have alternative access

4. It looks at provision of access to internet to these communities where it didnt exist

5. It will include device provision and skills development for both students and educators 

6. It will be tied to educational and job employment outcomes to ensure sustainable and long lasting impacts on the communities

We have secured partnerships and developed the design of the solutions. 

We have identified the beneficiary communities and engaged with the various stakeholders. 

We have engaged with DBE for longer term buy in.

We are testing out on a number of schools buy building with the vision to do at scale. 

We are already implementing the infrastructure component of the solution.

The innovative approach we are using is to deliver it through a partnership approach. There have been many ICT solutions put into rural communities and have failed. Either because they are 1) not sustainable, 2) too costly to scale, 3) once off provisions and not after support, 4) done for the wrong reasons, 5) not done with scale in mind. 

We plan to use partnerships to achieve the right outcome. Its not about PR or marketing. Its about genuine impact for students. 

The pilot is aimed to serve 73 000 youth. 

In 1 year - this will increase to 150 000

By 5 years, we would like to target 500 000

1. No of partners

2. No of devices

3. No of kids with devices provided

4. Usage of devices

5. Participation levels in challanges

6. Improved skills and assessments in education

Full time:2

Part time: 7

Contractors: 2

We have been working in education for many years. We have been working with these communities to help them transform for many years. 

We have the brand of a big organization to leverage partnerships. 

Project leader has over 17 years experience with 7 years experience leading education transformation in over 10 countries. 

Contractor is a tech education expert. 

Part time individuals are all tech facing. 

Representatives from different business units. 

Diverse background and experience.

Multi racial individuals including good mix of women and men.

We operate with full transparency and ensure all voices and ideas are heard.