A critical evaluation of the GautengOnline and the Khanya projects in South Africa in

the context of Kozma’s article on ICT’s impact on education.

The South African government’s primary objective is to improve the education of its
citizens. In the year 2000 the government rolled out the implementation of Information
Communication Technology into schools as the way of improving the culture of teaching and
learning in schools. The government introduced two well known projects in two provinces,
which are Khanya and GautengOline projects. The question is how successful are these
projects in obtaining the governments primary objective. This document critiques the
implementation of Information Communication Technology on GautengOnline and Khanya
Projects.

Kozma, B revealed in his writing the range of potential impacts ICT can have when applied to
education. Kozma mentioned three range ranges of potential impacts on ICT which are student
outcomes, teacher and classroom outcomes and broader contextual outcomes. It is within this
range of potential impact that gautengOnline GautengOnline and khanya Khanya projects will
be criticised in terms of successes and challenges.

The availability of computer laboratories in Gauteng was applauded by the communities and
political parties in the province. On the positive note this was giving a chance to learners who
did not have even a set of television at home as the means of communication. The on going
relationship of the availability of computers and student learning is a big problem with the
GautengOnline project. The timetable which has to be designed for Gautengonline is not
followed by educators. This impacted negatively to the progress of learners both in skills to be
gained and learning area knowledge. The number of computers given per school gives a
negative impact, because 25 computers cannot cater for 50 learners attending to the computer
laboratory. The reality is that not all learners gain proper and total access to the 25 computers
for them to gain the necessary skills. Learners are always interested and keen to learn through
ICT but factors such as lack of resources delays the progress. One other disappointment is the
connectivity which is always off line, to an extent that it was nicknamed “gautengoffline”.

The Gautengonline project was completed and schools had computer laboratories but
disappointingly educators were incompetent to get on with the projects. In most of the schools
very few teachers were computer literate even the few who were computer literate could not
integrate ICT with learning areas. The teacher trainings given by the department were
insufficient as teachers did not cope and the computer laboratories ended up being white horse
at in schools.
The researchers mislead the Gauteng department of education by giving the general overview
of the needs analysis of schools in Gauteng. The researchers should have tried to be specific
about the individual schools contextual factors in terms of security and electricity. Crime
incidents differ in all Gauteng locations but the security facilities installed were of the same
standard. Criminals broke into many computer labs stealing all computers and television sets.
This affected the project as schools could not operate on their computer labs for more than five
years. This is blamed on improper research and planning.
Another contextual factor that failed GautengOnline is the electricity supply of most schools
was not upgraded to cater for the demand of the computer labs. Most schools experienced the
fluctuating power supply and this damaged the electronic components.

The Western Cape department of education also rolled out the implementation of Information
communication Technology to schools as mandated by the National Education department.
Their project is called khanya Khanya project and this project obviously operated differently
compared to the GautengOnline project. The khanya Khanya project is recognised worldwide
because of the wonderful results it has produced to an extent that it won some awards.

It is said that the metric results improved since the introduction of ICT in schools and this is the
success of the khanya Khanya project. The khanya Khanya project was given 25 computers,
one television set, one printer and the whiteboard in all the Western Cape schools. There was
an outcry about the shortage of resources. The khanya Khanya project opted for partnership
with big businesses and partnership with communities. The educators were encouraged by
giving them thorough training on how to integrate ICT with the learning areas and that certain
subject were given first priority for integration with ICT. They had challenges with the criminal
factors that actually disturbed their project to succeed. Reacting to this threat the khaya project
adopted a system whereby every components component in their computer labs had a tracking
device and currently they are standing at zero cases of burglary in their schools.

It is evidently clear that khanya Khanya had better plan and research than gautengonline
Gautengonline and that many schools in both projects still lack resources to make a mark in as
far as Information communication Technology integration with learning areas.