Cape Town – Human Settlements Deputy Minister Zou Kota-Fredericks says the handover of a cyber lab to the Dunoon Primary School in Cape Town, will add another dimension to learning.
The Minister said this when she handed over a cyber lab that is equipped with a server, a white board, projector and 26 laptops to learners at the school on Monday.
“It is exciting because you must remember our children now love computers. It is an investment because you must remember these are leaders of tomorrow and we are entering a fourth revolution which is an IT space.
“So we are opening the doors of learning, e learning, to these young people, and it is an investment because they are coming from poor families. It is definitely going to break the cycle of poverty. We are very very excited,” she said.
As part of the handover, the school will receive tablets including free access to educational sites, Tablet charging trolley, Laptop, Server, Configured router and Wi-Fi.
The Deputy Minister said the partnership between government and the private sector was yielding positive results.
“They are the leaders of tomorrow. They are entering that space. I think this is a very positive input at the beginning of the year. This is really a space to get into between business and government.
“We are excited about this partnership, especially in the environment of Dunoon, which is surrounded by informal settlements. Families are poor but they can do better because they excel in school,” he said.
When the learners were handed over new tablets, some of them could not contain themselves and moved to switch the tablet on before helping their friends.
“They were so excited. You can see the positive smile on their faces. It is an exciting moment for the people of Dunoon, for the children of Dunoon and their families and it was exciting to see the teachers and the principal grappling with this issue.
“We even have teachers of high quality in IT as you can see as they were managing the space and using the tablets that are coming from Vodacom. About 26 tablets have been donated today by Vodacom, including the server, so it is very exciting,” she said.
Albert Breed, Vodacom’s managing executive, says the new school will help make learning conducive.
“This is a really exciting one for me because this is a really poor community and it is going to add a lot of value to the kids and it just helps them to move to another level in terms of their education and just helps them to have a proper career in their lives going forward.”
Bongani Macikama, the principal of Dunoon Primary School, said the donation by the Vodacom Foundation would improve the quality of learning at the schools.
He said the school currently enrols 1436 learners despite the socio economic challenges.