Johannesburg – With inland schools opening today, learners in seven Gauteng schools are walking into a new era of the digital classroom, which will connect them to a world of endless educational opportunities.<\/p>\n
The pilot project, known as the “Big Switch On”, is a paperless education system, which will enable learners to have access to learning material, workbooks and other subject matter through the use of Information Communications Technology (ICT). <\/p>\n
The seven schools in the pilot project will also receive state-of-the-art internet connection and each leaner will receive a tablet, turning ordinary schools into \u201cclassrooms of the future\u201d.<\/p>\n
According to the provincial Department of Education, the “Big Switch On\u201d pilot project is the first step in realising Gauteng’s vision, which aspires to build a world-class education system by modernising public education and improving the standard of performance across the entire system.<\/p>\n
Learners at Boitumelong Secondary School in Tembisa are one of the first of seven Gauteng township schools to \u201cbury the chalkboard\u201d and adopt this new approach to teaching.<\/p>\n
Several learners that SAnews spoke to at the school believed that the new devices will make learning more exciting. Many have never owned a computer let alone a tablet.<\/p>\n
“I do not think I will ever miss a day of school again and I will never have a reason to fail science or maths ever,” said grade 10 learner Pearl Mokoena said.<\/p>\n
Another learner said their township school will not be different from the former Model C schools, thanks to the devices.<\/p>\n
The price tag to migrate all schools in the province to the digital system is estimated at R17 billion over the next five years.<\/p>\n
The tablets are programmed for educational purposes only, with lessons pre-loaded.<\/p>\n
Permanent IT specialists will be on site at any given time to assist the students and educators with the new system.<\/p>\n
Apart from surveillance cameras, each school will have two armed security officers. The tablets have also been fitted with tracking devices. <\/p>\n
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, Gauteng Premier David Makhura and Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi will participate in the launch of the paperless education system. – SAnews.gov.za<\/p>\n
MyJHB<\/a><\/p>\n Read more on MyJHB<\/a>.<\/p>\n Join the fun:<\/strong> Add Your event<\/a> | Submit a Press Release<\/a> | Add your listing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Johannesburg – With inland schools opening today, learners in seven Gauteng schools are walking into a new era of the digital classroom, which will connect them to a world of endless educational opportunities. The pilot project, known as the “Big Switch On”, is a paperless education system, which will enable learners to have access to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3332],"tags":[6503,6504],"class_list":{"0":"post-45136","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-johannesburg-south-africa","7":"tag-bury","8":"tag-chalkboard","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}