Western Cape Education Department (WCED)
The Western Cape Education Department seeks to ensure that all learners of the Western Cape acquire the knowledge, skills and values they need to lead fulfilling lives, and to contribute to the development of the province and the country. The Department champions quality education for every child, in every classroom, in every school in the Western Cape.
The department divides the Western Cape into eight education districts, and educates more than 1 000 000 learners in a year, with a staff of around 35 000 educators.
Their vision is creating opportunity for all through improved education outcomes. This is given expression through three over-arching goals:
- Improved literacy and numeracy in primary schools
- Improved number and quality of passes in the National Senior Certificate
- Reduction in number of under-performing schools
They needed an advisor to the department to develop an e-Education vision and roadmap for Western Cape.
African Ideas drove the concept of a school’s wide area network (WAN) as an anchor of the provincial wide broadband. This fundamentally changes the way schools use technology to teach and learn, ultimately leading to improved education outcomes.
African Ideas Founder, Nirvesh Sooful, facilitated the first session with Education officials and other stakeholders, introducing concepts and ideas that eventually became the Western Cape Education Department’s e-Vision document.
Emanating from this, an e-education business case was developed, extensive work was done looking at the infrastructure, content, training, classroom and learner technologies, etc. that was needed to make this vision happen. African Ideas advised the WCG and the WCED throughout this process.