by AKANI CHAUKE
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – PLANS by South Africa to transform education through technology have received a major boost after a multinational company pledged its commitment to the initiatives.
Lenovo, the Chinese-headquartered firm, is partnering educators and students to create technology the company said is tailored to their needs.
“We’re designing solutions from the ground up to support and inspire learning in any situation,” the company stated.
In South Africa, Lenovo has introduced a software solution called LanSchool, which delivers digital classroom orchestration for teachers in primary and secondary schools.
This solution also addresses control and security of students’ hardware, which is seen as key for South African schools.
Lenovo offers the first year free when schools purchase its products.
Technology is now playing a bigger role in South Africa’s education sector because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw over 1,4 billion students worldwide studying from home in March 2020.
Lenovo bemoaned the disruption that remote learning caused to South Africa’s schooling sector.
It resulted in over 400 000 to 500 000 learners reportedly dropping out of school altogether.
These figures, according to Lenovo, came from children living in informal urban and rural settings, where household poverty prevented them from leveraging the benefits of technology.
South Africa has a national teacher shortage, with the best equipped educators in larger cities.
Internet access is also widening the digital divide.
Lenovo has called on the government to initiate a mass roll-out of internet access to solve the problem.
– CAJ News