Twenty five percent of all schools across Gauteng are yet to have a fully operational broadband connection.

Gauteng MEC of education Panyaza Lesufi today revealed that the province has so far connected 75% of schools with the assistance of private sector partners including MTN.

The department is however forging ahead with making sure all schools are connected as well as implementing other plans in its ICT in schools strategy, Lesufi indicated.

The entire school curriculum material, except for a couple of local language subjects, has been digitised, a move Lesufi said is much more cost efficient as one digitised textbook costs only around R38 to provide to a child, compared to one physical textbook, which costs R250.

“When we say we’ve digitalised the curriculum, it’s not about turning them to PDF, it’s interactive, that’s what we need because we want to be three years ahead of our peers,” Lesufi said.

All teachers in grade 12, which is the first the department is focusing on in its Paperless Classrooms roll out, have been trained to use tablets, laptops and software that are part of the project.

In total, the Gauteng Department of Education will have to have completed the mammoth task of training 160 000 grades seven to 12 to cover teacher training in its strategy.

This year department plans on training those teaching grade 11, which is next in line to receive ICT resources.

After all teachers have been trained, the education department will have to ensure that ICT resources are distributed to all schools in its network.

Fostering innovation and providing a support base for teachers in handling the technology are also key in making sure the department makes the best of the project, Lesufi said.

These plans are all part of a six-phase strategy the department has drawn up for ICT in education, a project which amounts to a total of R7 billion.