Classmate works

By Leon Engelbrecht for Intel
Johannesburg, 28 Mar 2008

Intel's Classmate PC, a sub-notebook optimised for primary and secondary schools, has proved its worth in Africa's classrooms, say executive VP Sean Maloney, and south and Sub-Saharan Africa GM Jacques van Schalkwyk.

There is now direct evidence that children do better at school when they have access to the Internet," says Maloney. "It is irrefutable evidence."

An Intel-led consortium has been testing the diminutive laptop in a school near Abuja, in Nigeria, and Pretoria, SA.

"We started off with one classroom to understand what the problems were and to get the teachers familiar with it," says Van Schalkwyk of the Abuja experiment.

Success was remarkable, he adds. "Within six months of starting to use the digital curriculum, the children scored on average 35% better in the national exams... this finding is not based on some study or something... it is accrual results from actual exams."

Van Schalkwyk says the Nigerian authorities were suitably impressed, and all children at the school now have a device.

An additional 300 schools have since received Classmate and "we are working on the details of the next 300 schools right now. It gives you an idea of the scalability of the system," he notes.

Classmate in SA

Intel country manager Devan Naidoo says the Mabopane trial involves 100 devices and results "have been remarkable".

Naidoo noted that, at the Mabopane launch, Duncan Hindle, SA's director-general for education, said it was the first time he had seen something that addressed the problem facing schools end-to-end.

Naidoo adds that the company has donated 5 000 PCs to the Department of Education (DOE), including the 100 deployed at the Abel T Motshoane High School. These are being delivered at a rate of 500 a quarter and are being divided equally among the nine provinces.

"Gauteng traditionally gets the most attention because that's where the businesses are. We have made it a policy with the DOE that the most needy schools get the attention. That plan is in place."

Van Schalkwyk believes SA is "a year, year-and-a-half behind [Nigeria]" but he is confident "we'll see the same scalability here, but whether it will be Classmate or something else remains to be seen. Technology is evolving all the time." He says there will always be new offerings and choices between technologies.

The cost of Classmate is now about $300 per unit, all inclusive, adds Van Schalkwyk, with Maloney noting that it is influenced upwards and down by the cost of the components. "It is always about volume economics; the more you make, the more you drive the price down. I think we've been successful in that."