Learners from Laerskool Totius in Boston can now access the internet at lightning speed as theirs becomes the 100th school in Cape Town to receive free open-access fibre internet delivered straight to their classrooms.
Vuma’s Fibre to Schools Project was launched in 2015 and, since then, Vuma and its Internet Service Provider partners have connected over 290 schools to free 1Gbps fibre broadband, giving thousands of learners and their educators access to a world of resources and opportunities.
“As fibre industry leaders, we’ve adopted the motto: ‘if we can, we must’,” says Dietlof Mare, Vuma CEO. “This is how our Fibre to Schools initiative was born, and it makes me incredibly proud that we are able to provide the next generation of leaders, innovators, thinkers and doers with the tools they need to not only propel South Africa forward, but to boost their own employability and succeed in the digital age.”
Fibre gives learners in primary and high schools the ability to access a world of information at the click, swipe or touch of a button.
This is especially useful for learners wanting to conduct online research for projects and assignments, but also gives educators the resources they need to introduce and adopt e-learning systems and bring school curriculums into the digital age.
As a result, learners can connect what they learn in the classroom to the world they live in.
“When Vuma arrived to connect our school, we were very excited, as was the whole of the Brackenfell community,” says Wendy Horn at Protea Heights Academy, one of the schools that Vuma recently connected. “Having access to the internet has changed the way we do things at our school. Every classroom has WiFi, every child can use the internet and we’re be able to use that to really integrate what we do in the classroom with the real world.
“We need to teach our children how to think critically. Having access to information at their fingertips enables them to do this, by expanding their knowledge and ensuring their enquiring minds can find the answers to many questions they have about their lives, their schooling and their future,” adds Horn.
In order to qualify to be part of Vuma’s Fibre to Schools Project, schools must be located within Vuma’s fibre deployment routes (Vuma’s fibre optic network must run past the school), and must be a primary or high school registered with the IEB or GDE.