Lesley Stones
15 August 2007
Johannesburg — A BRITISH charity that recycles computers discarded by top UK companies says it could make SA's 5-million secondary school pupils computer literate for just R50m.
Digital Links International opened a branch in Johannesburg this week to intensify its efforts to supply computers to SA's schools and colleges. Its short-term target is to reach at least 1-million pupils.
It has already set up refurbished, high-end computers in 19 Limpopo schools, but a lack of support from the national government has hampered its efforts. Instead, it has concentrated on Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana and Ethiopia, where government support has made the task far easier.
SA was now a particular focus, said its chairman, Sir Paul Judge, who is a director of Standard Bank. Digital Links works in 22 African countries, and more than 25% of secondary school pupils in Kenya now use its computers.
"Kenya is much poorer than SA and if Kenya can achieve that, we want to replicate that here. If we can get to a quarter of the secondary school kids in SA it would be wonderful," Judge said.
He said the South African government had not lent its support because it viewed secondhand computers as inferior and felt Africa was being used as a dumping ground for obsolete technologies.
That was not the case, he said. UK businesses bought such high-end computers that even when they were discarded they still had 95% of the functionality of the average new model. "You get a two- to three-year-old computer way beyond what is actually required to teach in a school," he said.
"The national government is worried about taking secondhand computers, although the provincial governments and the schools themselves understand that they can buy 10 times as many computers from us as they can if they buy them new.
Digital Links is hoping that the national government will also realise the benefits."
The charity receives its computers from 250 major British organisations, including Barclays Bank, Goldman Sachs and the government. All their corporate data is deleted and the equipment is refurbished.
Schools that want the computers must have secure classrooms so the equipment cannot be stolen.
They must also send the headmaster, two teachers and a designated technician on a Digital Links training course.
It costs R8000 to supply 20 computers and train the teachers, and since a typical school has 800 pupils, that equates to R10 a pupil. All SA's 5-million secondary school pupils could be given computer access for just R50m, said Judge.
Some schools are raising their own cash to take part and Digital Links is encouraging companies to sponsor the scheme. It is also talking to large local firms that could donate computers and have them refurbished locally.
Digital Links has also become an expert in solar power and wireless connectivity to make the computers useful and sustainable in remote areas. When the models finally reach the end of their life, they are returned to the UK for recycling.
Technology was the most affordable and effective way to educate young people and give them better job opportunities, Judge said. By 2009, Africa's population would reach 1-billion, and half would be under 20. "They are Africa's future and too many of them receive totally inadequate education. For every PC we put into Africa at least 25 children become computer literate every year."
Last month, Intel joined the private sector push to improve computer literacy in schools by launching a scheme to put Intel-powered PCs into classrooms. Abel T Motshoane High School in Mobapane was the first to receive Intel's specially designed, rugged, mobile computers with a theft-control system to disable them if they are removed from the school's network.
The school also became the first in SA to use WiMax wireless broadband technology to connect to the internet.
Intel's initiative is backed by the Gauteng education department, and 50 young people in the province will be trained to provide technical support.
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