The Eastern Cape Department of Education MEC, Fundile Gade in partnership with JENN Consultancy handed over 34 computers and a smart screen to the newly built J.S. Skenjana Senior Secondary School in Dutywa, in the Amatole East District.

The school was recently built and the department introduced a new concept as part of the handover which was to partner with JENN to make a contribution of computer lab equipment towards the school. This was because the two shares the same vision that a computer lab with the new E-Learning system would be a great contribution in making a difference towards teaching and learning at the school.

The computers come with a C3 content server which is an E-Library/E-Learning solution that the department is currently rolling out in schools around the Province. This C3 server allows learners and teachers to have access to content both online and offline as it has pre-loaded DBE content and provincial content from the e-curriculum and exams websites that have been interfaced already.

JENN Training and Consultancy representative, Arlene de Jongh, said that they believe the donation would be an inspiration for the learners and that they will be motivated and encouraged to excel.

“JENN focuses on school support programs, teacher development and capacitation of school principals. Going forward we would love to engage further with the educational community and to improve on teaching and learning and furthermore, to ensure that all outreach programs benefit the South African child”, said de Jongh.

J.S. Skenjana School Principal, Nomawabo Sanqu, said that the donation couldn’t have come at a better time as it will help offload some work and assist with exam time pressures.

“The DBE content will assist teachers and learners for revision purposes. Having a computer lab in our school will benefit learners that are not computer literate“, said Sanqu. She also added that they will have a special period where EAs help and educate learners on how to login and search for subjects on the E-Library, and basic computing.

A grade 12 learner, Mbali April who loves History said that she enjoys conducting research on different history topics but this used up a lot of her own data and had to spend money at internet cafes.

“We feel very privileged as learners there is a lot we will benefit from through this initiative. This means that we can do research, be able to type and print out our assignments here at school, and have access to past papers and other educational content that we have missed in the classroom; to prepare us for the trial and final examinations” concluded  April.