Schools Online Presence Project grows

Learners from Maxeke Secondary School

Selected by ZADNA, with the guidance of the Gauteng Department of Education, the schools have been provided with websites built by web designers located in their own communities. This means that teachers and support staff in these schools are now efficiently communicating, using their new email addresses associated with the websites. ZADNA is responsible for the costs of designing and hosting the websites and of providing email addresses to each school’s staff members. The Authority plans to continue the sponsorship for at least two years per school.

The 10 schools are:

• Beverly Hills Secondary School in Sebokeng (beverlyhigh.co.za)
  
• Evaton Primary School in Evaton (evatonprimary.co.za)
  
• Impala Crescent Primary School in Lenasia (impalacrescent.co.za)
  
• Lakeview Primary School in Soweto (lakeviewps.co.za)
  
• Lefika Primary School in Sebokeng (lefikaprimary.co.za)
  
• Maxeke Secondary School in Evaton (maxekesecondary.co.za)
  
• Phafogang Secondary School in Soweto (phafogang.co.za)
  
• Rutasetjhaba Secondary School in Evaton North (rutasechaba.co.za)
  
• Sivuse Primary School In Sebokeng (sivuseprimary.co.za)
  
• Tharabollo Secondary School in Palm Springs (tharabolo.co.za)

While reliable local statistics are hard to come by, anecdotal evidence suggests that one would be hard-pressed to find an independent or private school without a website, whereas the converse is true for public schools.

“Having a dedicated school website and email address is no luxury. Building an excellent education system for the majority of South Africans means not compromising on the best available technology. ZADNA is pleased to be able to direct the funds generated from .ZA domain name registrations to a project that uplifts needy schools through a .ZA Internet presence,” said Vika Mpisane, CEO of ZADNA.

“Websites are important marketing and online visibility tools for schools, they serve as a central point for disseminating information to learners, educators, parents and other stakeholders. The websites will also enable the schools to centralise their social media presence by having their social media channels (such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter) redirecting from the websites. The schools may also expand the websites into administrative interfaces by linking databases with student profiles and providing Intranets for educators.”

The Department of Basic Education pointed out that as far back as 2012, 30% of South African schools have ineffective governing bodies with many parents not involved in their children's education. “Parents can now use their computers, tablets and mobile phones to easily keep abreast of school activities through the websites,” Mpisane said.

The project results from an analysis by ZADNA into some of the school ICT initiatives by the public and private sectors. The analysis showed that most of these included computer laboratories, teacher computer training and the distribution of tablets to learners. It also showed that a substantial number of schools still did not have dedicated websites and email addresses.

The Schools Online Presence Project will continue to identify schools requiring website support, while collaborating with community-based web developers that can help make the government's vision of connected schools a positive South African reality.

“Our selection of Gauteng schools is based on the fact that we felt that, in the short term, it would be easy to manage communication with schools that are geographically close to the organisation’s operational base. The goal is to work with more provinces and other public and private entities to encourage schools' online presence within the .ZA namespace,” concluded Mpisane.