Honourable Minister Roy Padayachie (In Botswana)
Honourable MEC Mokgoe
Chairperson USAASA and Members of the Board
Senior Officials from the Education Department
Representatives from MTN
The School Principal and Educators
Representatives from the School Governing Body
Representatives from RCL
Learners
Community leaders
Ladies and gentlemen
Programme director,
It is appropriate for me to start by advocating and to remind everyone here today about the importance to RICA your SIM Cards, whether it is for the cell phone, iPad, laptop any device that requires the use of a SIM Card would be disconnected on the midnight of 30 June 2011.
Come the following morning on 1 July people that have not had their SIM Card RICA compliance would not be able to communicate even if you are on contract with unlimited airtime.
MEC and Executive Mayor I hope that all of your respective SIM Cards are complying with RICA process. I also hope that all people here today even at home have also done so.
I am delighted to be here with you today for the official launch of the Mampoi Secondary School CyberLab.
I am told that MEC you triggered this initiative it is highly commendable and is a dream comes through for the learners of this high performing school for having constantly achieving 100% pass rate in the past years.
Adam Cooper a University Dean once said “You don't need fancy highbrow traditions or money to really learn. You just need people with the desire to better themselves”.
He was basically saying intellectual ability or financial recourses are not the ultimate for achieving learning but the desire to learn.
These computers in the classroom are of high significance for the reason that they enables the learners to search for the information.
I am also grateful that the launch of this CyberLab will propel more of performing learners in the district executive mayor; we need more leaders like Thabo Mofutsanyana and others to come from this district.
Chairperson as you are aware that I chair an eConnectivity Forum comprising of eight Deputy Ministers – Basic Education, Health, Rural Development, Science and Technology, Economic Development, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs including Communications; our task is to ensure that all the twenty one thousand Schools and about five thousand health facilities in South Africa are connected.
Our responsibility is huge in which we pause, and ask a question: How far have we gone in addressing the commitments we made, of developing an inclusive information society in line with the World Summit on Information Society resolutions.
The Department of Basic Education has moved towards integrating computer studies into curriculums so all schools produce computer literate and independent learners.
Information communication technology (ICT) is a global phenomenon, and children who are computer literate at an early stage of their lives might deal better with the modern world. A sound knowledge of ICT makes it much easier for children to find and organise information.
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) 2009 study that took place between 2006 and 2009 identified good practices in the teaching of ICT. Although the ICT curriculum was sometimes poorly balanced, its use contributed to children doing better in some subject areas. The study also found that the primary school children spent as much time on computers as the curriculum allowed.
ICT is important in primary schools because it can help kids to achieve better results in other subjects and to find what they need and use information in particular ways. It is important that children become familiar with ICT at an early age, because they will need those skills for the remainder of their education and in adult life.
The launch of the Mampoi CyberLab is one amongst a number of initiatives which the Department of Communications has unveiled in the last couple of months. The CyberLab should be used by learners to generate information and promote the usage and uptake of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for societal and economic development.
This high tech infrastructure is a significant stride of connectivity and a gateway to global information society, and to set in motion the e-Education.
Principal and educators,
The opportunities from an education and teaching viewpoint are gargantuan (huge), with such infrastructure educators are provided with the tool to integrate their teaching materials to maintain the excellence academic achievement of learners.
Programme director,
Experience has over the years shown that the participation of all stakeholders in any initiative results, in a very successful and secure solution. Therefore, this infrastructure should be secured by all community members, and we need to discourage people from buying stolen computer goods. Let us all be security guards for these facilities.
On a lighter note I quote Scott Adams “If computers get too powerful, we can organise them into committees – the only challenge they have lots of memory but no imagination”.
In conclusion, I wish to thank the MEC, HoD and the Education Department, Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa (USAASA) and MTN the main sponsors of this event. I also extend the word of appreciation to the educators, learners and all stakeholders who made this initiative a success.
Keya Leboga.
Source: Department of Communications
