Christel House South Africa in the Spotlight
Business can help create tech-savvy learners.
Teaching is changing and, in many ways becoming a much more difficult job, but having access to technology can really make a difference. This is according to Ronald Fortune, high-school principal of Christel House South Africa (CHSA), an independent school that provides scholarships and a holistic education to poor children in Cape Town.
“We are living with an information age overload and there is huge expectation that students will learn high-level skills such as how to access, evaluate, analyse, and synthesise vast quantities of information. Yet so often this is not possible because many schools, especially in poorer areas, do not have access to the technology necessary to facilitate this.
According to Fortune, Christel House is privileged to be in partnership with the Dell Development Fund that has, in the past two years, donated more than R2 million worth of computers and other technological equipment to the school “making a huge difference to the way teaching is taking place”.
Fortune says that with the help of Dell and their development fund, Christel House is improving the quality of their teaching and the overall education experience of their learners. Their investment in the school will go a long way to helping Christel House make teaching literacy, mathematics and science more stimulating.
“Last year when the Dell Development Fund first came on board as a sponsor, they helped us to fully equip two computer rooms at the school, a donation that was worth a staggering R1.9 million. Recently they donated smart boards and other equipment like web cameras to the value of R800 000, they also sponsored R150 000 towards school uniforms.”
Fortune says that in the coming weeks each class will be fitted with their own smart boards and web cameras and the entire faculty are excited and eager to see the creativity, innovation and indeed amazing difference that these technologies will make for the school. In a show of gratitude, Christel House invited Dell’s managing director, Stewart van Graan, and the rest of the Development Fund team to celebrate the donation and spend time with the teachers and students, who are all very appreciative of their brand new gadgets.
Van Graan, who spent two days at Christel House reading to learners and even helping with lunch time duty, said that the Dell Development Fund is dedicated to projects and initiatives that deliver real value to learners and real benefits that create sustainable development and economic transformation in South Africa.
Source: http://perspectivemagazine.com/blog/tag/dell-development-fund/
