5 Year Strategic Plan 2005/06 - Department of Education

(PPPFA), and to provide a database of suppliers. A system for the administration of the
School Nutrition Programme (SNP) is also in the process of being acquired.
Of particular importance is the fact that the Department is proceeding well with the formulation
of a Master Information Systems Plan (MISP). The final report will be completed during the
current financial year. This plan is expected to lay the foundation for major systems
development work to be undertaken to provide for the business process aspects of the work
of the Department.
With respect to connectivity and systems architecture, all 24 district offices and the head
office are now connected, but the basic service of email provision is still a challenge. This has
much to do with the need for training of staff to use the service and the lack of adequate
technical support services. The IT Unit has severe staff shortages and skills levels are not
adequate.
To address these issues, in-house training has been provided to IT representatives from
districts during 2005, technicians have been sent on several training courses, they have been
provided with good equipment, and two contract technicians have been engaged to assist
with user support. More than 20 learners have been utilised during the year as a means of
building longer term IT capacity and obtain support services for the Department. An active IT
Forum has now been in operation for six months and is proving to be a valuable mechanism
for information sharing, knowledge transfer, and skills development amongst the IT Reps and
head office technicians.
The strategic direction that is being investigated and is the subject of a proof-of-concept test,
is the use of terminal services. This involves the use of software that will enable the district
offices to function from three cluster file server farms instead of the current arrangement with
file servers in all districts. Use is also being made of shared file servers belonging to the
Office of the Premier instead of purchase own equipment. This strategy is fully supported by
the Provincial Government Information Technology Officer (PGITO) and the State Information
Technology Agency (SITA). Such a strategy could free up a lot of resources that could better
be used to obtain IT equipment for schools instead of each provincial department having its
own equipment.
15.5.2 ICT in Schools
There are less than 500 schools with computers available for teaching and learning with
another 500 having some computers for administration only. These figures are very low in
relation to the 6,304 schools in the province and the far higher levels that some other
provinces have already achieved.
The Department’s eEducation Business Plan was approved in March 2005. It responds to the
target that set out in the draft White Paper on eEducation that ‘Every South African learner in
the general and further education and training bands will be ICT capable by 2013’. The
Business Plan projected the costs of implementing the policy by 2013, starting with a three
year piloting and planning phase in 2005/06 to 2007/8. Under the plan, first year funding
required for 2005/06 was R198 million. Under current financial constraints funding has been
well below these levels.
The Department is working with several service providers and donors to provide computer
equipment to schools. At present there are about 500 schools with computers, but several
large donations were being administered during 2005. The South African Revenue Service
donated 500 computers which will go to 161 schools and the South African Police Service
donated 913 computers which will go to 348 schools. The focus of distribution of the
equipment is senior secondary schools. After these donations have been distributed more
than 1 000 schools will have some computers.
At present the Department is not able to fund the purchasing of computers for schools and
therefore relies on contributions from parents, communities, business, NGOs, and foreign
governments for support.
5 Year ECDoE Strategic Plan for 2005/06 to 2009/10 March 2006 Page 101
5 Year ECDoE Strategic Plan for 2005-06 to 2009-10. 21 F (5) Page 97