Education
With respect to computer laboratories at schools in the province:
(1) Of all the public schools in the province, how many are equipped with computer laboratories;
(2) whether there are any plans to equip or upgrade the current facilities further; if so, (a) what are the relevant details and (b) how much would this cost?
[1]Two types of ICT suites (computer labs) are installed at schools – subject-specific labs where Computer Applications Technology [CAT], Information Technology, or Engineering Graphics and Design [EGD] that require base technology for the subject to be offered, or more general use labs [“Slim Labs”] as a shared resource across multiple grades and subjects.
In the subject-specific case, the Department has a 3-4 year refresh cycle as part of its operating procedures to evaluate the technology at the schools offering the subjects, and/or to consider curriculum extensions at schools for this purpose. All 255 schools offering these subjects are provisioned with the required base technology.
1 320 schools have been provisioned with Slim Labs.
[2] On average, 80 schools are provisioned with requisite technologies for CAT, IT and EGD annually, at a cost of roughly R26 million per year.
The Slim Labs provisioning for 2022/2023 would see 179 schools receiving mobile suites of technology, at a cost of roughly R18.5 million.
