STUDENTS at 10 universities will be offered possibly the cheapest internet access in the country under a scheme to build wireless hotspots on campuses. <\/p>\n
Internet Solutions will spend up to R1m creating the wireless networks, and promises free connectivity for the first two months followed by a permanent discount to just a third of the normal fee. <\/p>\n
Internet Solutions has been brought on board by Intel, the world’s largest microchip manufacturer, which announced the project on Friday as one of its two initiatives to boost SA’s standard of education. <\/p>\n
Ways of helping the students <\/strong><\/p>\n Nationally, fewer than 5% of university students own computers. The cost of connectivity is a second financial hurdle. <\/p>\n “We see this initiative as one that will really broaden access to information and communications technology (ICT). We hope it will work towards creating a much more ICT-capable society,” said the university’s vice chancellor, Prof Errol Tyobeka. <\/p>\n Students could be prepared for the working world only if they could access technologies and acquire skills that industries required, such as word processing and spreadsheets. <\/p>\n The wireless networks would be built early next year at the first 10 universities, with a national roll-out to follow, said Internet Solutions CEO Angus MacRobert. <\/p>\n The amount of bandwidth and the number of hotspots on each campus would be adjusted according to how enthusiastic the take-up was. <\/p>\n “We need to be investing in students and children and education. I think this access for students will be the cheapest in the country,” MacRobert said. <\/p>\n Intel chairman Craig Barrett said his company was acting as a facilitator in the scheme to make broadband affordable for students. International bandwidth was scarce in Africa because of the lack of submarine telecoms cables. That would change when the first new cable went live next June, and bandwidth should cost just a 50th or a 100th of today’s fee, he said. <\/p>\n Students should be encouraged to use the bandwidth to conduct research and development as the innovative ideas coming out of universities often trumped the ideas thought up by corporations, he said. <\/p>\n Barrett was also in SA to commit Intel to making its resources available to the <\/p>\n e-schools project run by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad). <\/strong><\/p>\n Despite hatching a plan to connect all African schools to the internet in 2003, Nepad has reached only 80 schools. That lamentably slow progress has not deterred Intel from getting involved. <\/p>\n “Governments like to talk about doing things and often don’t get around to doing much,” Barrett said. “Sometimes demonstrating what you are talking about can be a valuable way to show it’s possible, show the results, and then inspire further confidence.” <\/p>\n Intel is already conducting various social responsibility efforts in SA, including a pledge to improve computer literacy by putting 5000 PCs into schools by 2010. It has also trained thousands of teachers to use the technology, and taught them to train others so their skills spread in a ripple effect. <\/p>\n But it was not Intel’s job to do such work alone, said Barrett. After it demonstrated what was possible, governments had to take over and expand the schemes. <\/p>\n Intel’s GM for sub-Saharan Africa, Devan Naidoo, said putting computers into a poor school at Bela-Bela had been enormously successful, boosting the maths and science pass rates 25%. <\/p>\n More surprisingly, it had a startling effect on attendance, with a previously dire attendance rate rising to 85% because the students wanted to learn computer skills. <\/p>\n Every African child deserved an education of international quality so they gained the skills to compete with their global peers, said Henry Chasia, deputy chairman of the Nepad e-Africa Commission. <\/p>\n Collaborating with Intel would help to ensure that 650000 African schools became e-schools within a decade and that 6-million teachers were trained to use the technology effectively. <\/p>\n