Paperless education ‘unlikely to succeed’

Paperless education ‘unlikely to succeed’

The Gauteng Education department’s plan to introduce a paperless education programme is ill-conceived, as there will simply not be enough funds to provide each pupil with a tablet or a laptop, says Christopher Riley, CEO of The Notebook Company.

Riley’s comments follow yesterday’s statement from Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi, who said a number of schools in Tembisa are set to pilot a paperless education programme. 
He said the school would receive state-of-the-art Internet connections at no expense to government. The schools were also supplied with tablets and training to conduct lessons online.

“It is noble attempt, but I just don’t see how the government can afford all the tablets. Most students’ parents will certainly not be able to pay for tablets or laptops,” says Riley.

All text books are available online but, again, students need to own a laptop or tablet – as well as have an Internet connection – to access them.

“Introducing a paperless education system would certainly help to end the embarrassing non-delivery of school textbooks which have been plaguing the country for some time now. But it remains an unobtainable goal simply due to the cost of implementation. This could be summed up as a case of covering the problem of textbook delivery, rather than finding a solution,” he adds.