The national Department of Education (DOE) will not subsidise the thousands of Asus EEE PCs that the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) hopes its members will buy.
This could possibly scupper the entire deal, as one commentator says government buy-in is essential for success.
DOE director-general Duncan Hindle says the deal brokered between Sadtu, ICT distributor Rectron, and financing house Bayport does not include the department, which cannot subsidise someone else's agreements.
"It is regrettable that the union did not consult with the DOE before entering into this agreement as we are, in fact, in the advanced stages of our own subsidised teacher laptop deal," says Hindle.
Under the Sadtu-brokered agreement, announced this week, Rectron hopes to sell EEE PCs to at least 80% of the union's 240 000 members, as well as a number of teachers walking over from other unions in order to access the deal.
While the teachers would qualify for as yet unspecified discounts on the low-cost laptops under the arrangement, they would have to pay for the equipment themselves.
IDC research analyst Hannes Fourie says government overlooked the education sector in the last couple of years. "Initiatives like these could potentially put the education sector back in the spotlight for ICT development, but the IDC believes subsidising by government is necessary to make these initiatives successful.
"By educating the teachers, we could see more initiatives for learners in the future. Building skills from an early age through the use of ICT is key to delivering the much-needed skills in the coming years."
Crossed lines
Hindle says the DOE has been in discussions with Intel for some time to provide a solution across the country that would be subsidised by the state. He notes that the Sadtu deal will not deter it from continuing with this plan.
"We have the funds and the project will definitely be implemented. We will appeal to teachers to let it run its course."
Intel's Classmate PC costs between R1 500 and R4 000 - comparable with the EEE PC's average R2 500 - and has similar specifications to the EEE PC.
Hindle says Sadtu is one of the unions being engaged in the process of rolling out the department's low-cost computing solution, as the DOE considers it to be part of the conditions of employment of teachers, which falls under the ambit of the bargaining council.
He says Sadtu seems to have its communication lines crossed internally, as it is part of the bargaining council.
The Sadtu agreement has been three to four years in the making. According to the union's chairman, Thokile Nthola, the interaction between it and the DOE needs to be addressed, specifically as far as ICT is concerned.
However, Sadtu stands firm in its intention to go ahead with the deal.
"We will further engage with them [the DOE] anyway," said Nthola, upon hearing the DOE was not interested in subsidising the Sadtu EEE PCs.
Sadtu believed it did not have to engage the DOE before going ahead with the agreement as "they might not have understood our point of premise on this discussion", he notes.
He would not be drawn further on the topic, saying he did not want to sour relations with the DOE.
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