Nedbank Partners With 50x15 to Bring Thousands of Students Into the Digital Age
Partnership leverages Information and Communication Technology to improve educational opportunities across South Africa.
Earlier this year, Nedbank, one of the largest retail banks in South Africa, chose to partner with 50x15 to deploy 50x15 Learning Labs across five schools in historically underserved South African communities. From science experiments to the latest geography maps to medicinal studies, technology in 50x15 Learning Labs provides teachers with access to a wealth of information via the Internet. Access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) serves as a cost-effective means to maintain a current curriculum — a challenge teachers have historically faced due to aging textbooks. It also unlocks new and powerful ways for students to collaborate with their teachers.
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| Mandela High School students exploring the new Learning Lab computers |
Deployment
Nelson R. Mandela High School in Gugulethu was selected to be the Learning Lab pilot for the larger Nedbank-50x15 collaboration based on the high school's strong vision and ability to provide a lasting impact on the broader Gugulethu community. As with all Learning Labs, the implementation of the Mandela High digital inclusion center required a close look at existing infrastructure and an organized approach to managing logistics. The most difficult challenge faced in the deployment was upgrading the existing facility to enable Internet access. Once the facility's electrical and network infrastructures had been improved, 26 FIC Mini PC Ion A603s — energy efficient, small form factor devices — were installed, bringing 1,600 senior secondary students into the digital age.
Immediate Effects
The positive effects the Mandela High Learning Lab had on students and teachers were noticed immediately. Not only does the lab serve as a cost-effective way to access up-to-date educational, healthcare and current events information, having Internet access has encouraged students to stay in school.
"The lab will help me a lot with my school work such as browsing the Internet when I need information regarding my projects and assignments. This lab will help me to build a brighter future for myself," said Mandela High student Lucky Erasmus. "I will become technologically minded and maybe I can become the next Bill Gates."
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| Lucky Erasumus, a student at Nelson R. Mandela High School, reads his award-winning essay about “How I Plan to Use the Learning Lab to Better My Future.” |
Lasting Impact
To ensure the sustainability of the Mandela High Learning lab, Nedbank's Small Business Services division is currently exploring revenue generation options with the staff of the secondary school. One such option already under investigation is enabling the lab to serve as a cyber café during after-school hours to provide the greater Gugulethu community with access to the Internet. Community members could be billed per hour of access and the revenue generated from this activity could pay for the connectivity at the school with any additional profits used at the school's discretion.
New Opportunities
For thousands of students in South Africa, a bridge has been constructed across the digital divide. All 50x15 Learning Labs are designed to be replicable, with lessons learned in previous projects passed on to promote the success of future endeavors. The Mandela High lab has successfully been up and running since April 2007 and Nedbank's efforts continue with a replication of the Gugulethu digital inclusion center planned for Lenyora Botshabelo School over the next several months. Nedbank was initially inspired to partner with 50x15 by the successes of the NEPAD e-Schools deployments in Uganda, in which 50x15 has helped deploy numerous digital inclusion centers.
With more and more successes being documented each year, it is the hope of both 50x15 and Nedbank that the lessons learned in the implementation and maintenance of the Mandela High Learning Lab will lead to many future successful Learning Lab deployments in South Africa and beyond.
For more information on the Nedbank Learning Lab, download the comprehensive project capsule here.