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Business can help create tech-savvy learners

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 15:51

Teaching is changing and, in many ways becoming a much more difficult job, but having access to technology can really make a difference. This is according to Ronald Fortune, high-school principal of Christel House South Africa (CHSA), an independent school that provides scholarships and a holistic education to poor children in Cape Town.

“We are living with an information age overload and there is huge expectation that students will learn high-level skills such as how to access, evaluate, analyse, and synthesise vast quantities of information. Yet so often this is not possible because many schools, especially in poorer areas, do not have access to the technology necessary to facilitate this.

“I want to encourage those schools to go into partnership with private companies who have a vested interest in education and specifically in helping create a technologically savvy new generation of learners. All schools are responsible for assisting to meet the goals of increasing the number of engineers, doctors and other professionals that will help drive economic growth, but schools do not have to do it alone,” he said.

According to Fortune, Christel House is privileged to be in partnership with the Dell Development Fund that has, in the past two years, donated more than R2 million worth of computers and other technological equipment to the school “making a huge difference to the way teaching is taking place”.

Fortune says that with the help of Dell and their development fund, Christel House is improving the quality of their teaching and the overall education experience of their learners. Their investment in the school will go a long way to helping Christel House make teaching literacy, mathematics and science more stimulating.

“Last year when the Dell Development Fund first came on board as a sponsor, they helped us to fully equip two computer rooms at the school, a donation that was worth a staggering R1.9 million. Recently they donated smart boards and other equipment like web cameras to the value of R800 000, they also sponsored R150 000 towards school uniforms.”

Fortune says that in the coming weeks each class will be fitted with their own smart boards and web cameras and the entire faculty are excited and eager to see the creativity, innovation and indeed amazing difference that these technologies will make for the school.

In a show of gratitude, Christel House invited Dell’s managing director, Stewart van Graan, and the rest of the Development Fund team to celebrate the donation and spend time with the teachers and students, who are all very appreciative of their brand new gadgets.

Van Graan, who spent two days at Christel House reading to learners and even helping with lunch time duty, said that the Dell Development Fund is dedicated to projects and initiatives that deliver real value to learners and real benefits that create sustainable development and economic transformation in South Africa. “I believe that technology can and will provide the tools necessary for these learners to not only be successful, but become significant to the future of South Africa,” he said.

During his visit he encouraged learners to think about their future careers, saying that as part of the Dell Development Fund agenda, they also take on university interns every year. He said that Christel House learners who pass well and make it into university would be the kind of students they would be proud to have training at their company.

“Christel House is a unique school, and I have had the privilege of seeing that first hand. Our partnership with this school is an honour and we are proud to have the opportunity of turning the hopes of these young people into reality,” he said.