Meadowlands local school Sivelile Primary School were all smiles after receiving a donation from Old Mutual in partnership with the Gauteng Department of Education today.
As part of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) programme, the department selected 50 schools to receive a donation of laptops and projector’s for each school as a way to promote the #paperlessclassroom initiative of the department.
“We are one of the chosen, I am so happy and over the moon.
As one laptop and one projector won’ t be sufficient we will use it as our starting point to improve our levels of education; I’m adamant to buy more projectors for our Grade sixes and sevens and I will even organise training for my teachers so they can be efficient in its usage”, said Ntombi Mohlabai principal of Sivelile Primary.
The Old Mutual, Gauteng South Provincial Manager Nelson Makhanda said, “ it’s like we knew that the Department of Education was going to introduce a paperless class and we were proactive in the last three years to donate ICT equipment to the department.
We are proud sponsors because it is what is helping the department to enhance the quality of learning, teaching and management in schools and also to improve the results of the schools in general.”
The room filled with principals, the Minister of Education, Panyaza Lesufi thanked Old Mutual on behalf of the schools for their contribution to their #paperlessclassroom initiative.
Lesufi said, “ We thank Old Mutual for the gesture that they have made as we are entering a digital world soon.
Our young people have to be active participants in that world, to ensure that they won’t be servants but will be business people in the world of ICT; our children must be at the centre of the revolution.
We need to create a new economy, that is why we appreciate these gifts and this partnership with Old Mutual.”
Lesufi said the department is not ashamed of investing 1.7 billion every year on ICT for pupils and he urged principles to please take this opportunity to take the department where it wants to take education.
Gauteng being the province with the lowest graduates Lesufi emphasised the department’s vision of creating a generation that compromises of leadership that will not have to queue for social grants to survive in the future.
