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INDUSTRY WATCH
to information and case studies, real time
feedback and monitoring of progress. needs of the scholars and very importantly is
robust and sustainable.
“There are many technological solutions
available to achieve this and one would
have to look at the most feasible option(s)
for the school or corporate environment.
Looking beyond basic physical infrastructure,
connectivity is imperative. Connectivity
means students and teams have access to
knowledge. Not so long ago, we were limited
in how we could learn, where we could learn
and what we could learn, but today we Fright says that a lot of markets in Africa
need and depend on donations from
organisations and bilateral investment
training to help drive some of that
investment. However, the overriding trend is
that education in Africa is transforming but
requires a significant amount of investment.
“A lot needs to be done in Africa,” he said.
“We have seen higher levels of student
THE DIGITAL AND
TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY
IS FACED WITH NEW
CHALLENGES – CHALLENGES
THAT REQUIRE NEW SKILLS,
CRITICAL THINKING AND
PROBLEM SOLVING.
have an option to not be constrained to the
information that has been written in a book
or on blackboard.
“Technology and particularly Wi-Fi is playing
a huge role in the classroom and while it’s
easy to get caught up in the sci-fi vision
of tomorrow, school IT administrators
face more mundane – and much more
pressing – challenges right now. Ensuring
that the infrastructure in place services
the masses adequately, comes at a
price. A single classroom that can service
around 50 concurrent Wi-Fi users in a
school would cost an average of R5000 to
connect, excluding the fibre connection,
the switching infrastructure and additional
costs. Regardless of the Wi-Fi infrastructure
that one deploys at schools, the costs of
connecting the network requires either fibre,
3G or 4G, GSM technology or satellite and
these technologies are still expensive.
retention take place when deployment and
investments are planned as part of education
transformation initiatives. Some countries
in Africa are very poor and typically have
student dropouts, in some parts it is up to
50–60%. But we’ve seen good deployment
Aaron Fright, Regional Director,
Emerging Markets, SMART Technologies
of technology, supported with various
professional development programmes
for educators. I believe that when there
is good implementation supported with
good services, we see higher number of
students in school. It is one thing to learn,
and one thing to stay in schools.
“Before, students had other priorities due
to socioeconomic welfare conditions.
Higher numbers are now staying in
school. The key in terms of what else
“With many local schools struggling
financially, the government has to ensure
that the technology deployed serves the
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