Tailor-made e-learning device for pupils
Pupils in the Western Cape may soon benefit from an educational device which is tailor-made to suit their needs.
A South African tech company is raising the bar in online learning with an e-learning device tailored to curriculum-specific educational material to schools.
As part of the Odin Education pilot programme roll-out, Jendamark Automation and their sponsors handed over more than 600 devices to schools in rural areas.
Over the past month, they delivered 114 devices to Grade 11 pupils at Nqweba Secondary School in Graaff-Reinet in the Eastern Cape and 75 to Grade 12 pupils from various Nelson Mandela Bay schools who are enrolled in the Unity in Africa Foundation’s Incubating Great Engineering Minds (iGEMS) after-school programme.
The educational tablet known as Omang, meaning identity in Sesotho, is personalised according to the individual pupil’s registered subject choices and pre-loaded with data.
Pupils in the Western Cape would soon benefit from the devices as well. Sibonisiwe Cakwebe, a Grade 12 pupil at Newton Technical High School in Port Elizabeth, said: “Having this device is a real blessing. It has helped me with work that I did not understand at school. Online is very important, especially in the days in which we are living.”
Managing director at Jendamark Automation group, Quinton Uren, said: “This is not just about textbooks on tablets. This is about bringing costs down through collaboration to create a truly affordable education technology solution for every South African school, with no hidden costs.
"We want every child to have access to a world of knowledge wherever they are at home, in the classroom, on a taxi, anywhere and anytime.”
Head of Odin Education, Ajit Gopalakrishnan, said: “The intention is ultimately to roll out (the programme) across all provinces in the country and we are in our marketing drive to do that. The exact time of when we do so in the Western Cape will depend on the interest and associated funding within each province.”