New e-learning scheme in Gauteng beset by old problems

Two years after the e-Learning Solution programme was initiated by the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE), the Goede Hoop Primary School in Reiger Park, Boksburg, still doesn’t have a working phone line. Instead, when students or staff members need connectivity, the principal uses the school budget to buy data on his own cellphone.

Principal Gerald Henley says his school was first part of a pilot scheme with the Gauteng Online Schools Project (GOSP), and while it had received tablets, they were taken away a short while later. “Forty tablets were given to each school, but then 40 tablets were recalled. They were beneficial but due to safety, they were all recalled. They didn’t give them back.”