St Alban’s College Pretoria, South Africa Africa’s First Virtual Classroom Brings Education to Underprivileged Learners

Read the full case study (PDF 102KB)

Overview

St Alban's College is a private Anglican School for boys in grades 8-12. The college is well-known for producing top pupils in the fields of science and computer science. St Alban's is also known for helping communities access education through innovative outreach programmes.

Challenge

Teachers at St Alban's wanted to help nearby schools overcome the problems caused by a shortage of qualified teachers and resources through distance collaboration tools. The school wanted to help pupils avoid spending up to two hours a day commuting from underprivileged schools to more privileged institutions for extra classes.

SMART Solution

SMART Board interactive whiteboards, a private broadband wireless network and other distance education technology.

Result

Pupils at an underprivileged school will no longer need to travel to St Alban's for science, biology, English and maths classes. Pupils can see, listen to and interact with qualified teachers from St Alban's without leaving their own school. As a result of their success, teachers at St Alban's hope to use distance education to prevent other pupils in the area from sacrificing time travelling to other schools for classes.

Visit the Ulwazi Project: www.ulwaziproject.co.za