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INTRODUCTION
The Dongwe Day
March 25th 2004, Dongwe Primary School, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa.
The day dawned to a cloudless blue sky. After four days of torrential
rain, itself a good omen in Xhosa tradition, visitors to Dongwe were to
be treated to a day of sunshine. By first light activity in the school
was intense. Final touches were made to the buildings repainted through
community help. A group of mothers finished scything the grass on the
surrounding land. Villagers gazed at the huge blue and yellow marquee,
the largest ever put up in Dongwe or anywhere else in the region.
At 10.00 a.m. two brightly painted motor bikes and side cars roared into
the compound, one carrying a mobile cinema, the other a water purification
unit. For the next hour these became the centre of attention: the assembling
of the giant cinema screen, projector and PA system as well as the water
purifying system that would provide drinking water for guests (both powered
by small diesel pumps).
By 11.00 a.m. the first group of visitors began to arrive. In the distance
small lines of children, teachers and parents could be seen crossing the
rolling landscape towards the school. Vehicles traversed the 50 bumpy
kilometres from the nearest tarmac road. The first brought staff from
the University of Fort Hare and the UK’s Open University; these
were followed by overcrowded buses from village schools, some four or
five hours distant.
Midday – and by now over six hundred Dongwe residents, invited guests
and staff from the Universities sponsoring the event gathered inside and
outside the marquee.
A nine year old girl took the microphone:
“Ladies and gentlemen…
Honorable guests…
Mums and dads…
Grandmas and grandpas…
Brothers and sisters…
Special friends…
Dear colleagues (applause)”
Her voice rose with each designation. The crowd swelled. Everyone jostled
for a seat and a view of the marquee:
“– it is my pride…(laughter) and my joy…and my
greatest honour (more applause) to stand in front of you today”.
As the tent went silent the gentle sounds of music playing over the loudspeakers
became apparent. They became louder. The platform party and the whole
audience began singing. Every face had a huge smile. The ceremony took
three hours. After the local praise singer, children and mothers dancing
and an opening prayer from the village minister, all eyes became riveted
on the screen. First came the messages of support. The face of Professor
Derrick Swartz, Vice Chancellor of the University of Fort Hare, appeared:
“I would like to sincerely commend you all for the wonderful work
that you have done in preparing us for the challenge ahead in the development
of our country…I am very proud of a project that is a source of
inspiration for the University and the Eastern Cape community, in its
pioneering work in the field of new technologies. We are proud of the
relationship with the OU and we hope this work will become a role model
– linking the work you’re doing in education to agriculture,
health and other productive developments, championing the development
of our people. Congratulations!”
Professor Brenda Gourley, Vice Chancellor of the Open University (UK)
followed:
“Technology has opened up new ways of teachers and learners working
together, achieving more together than any individual could hope to on
their own. We are all living in exciting times and we must make the most
of opportunities that are made available to us.
On behalf of The Open University, I send warm congratulations to all the
teachers who have so successfully learned how to use their lap-tops and
hand-held computers. I am delighted that the DEEP project is playing a
part in using these technologies in the Eastern Cape.”
Then Nhlanganiso Dladla, Dean of the Faculty of Law at UFH read a message
from Bob Moon, Professor of Education at the Open University:
“When Nhlanganiso and I first established this partnership between
our two Universities, nearly ten years ago now, we could never have expected
it to grow and blossom in this way. The Dongwe affirmation ceremony is
just one marvellous example of our joint work. There will be many more
in the future.”
Jenny Leach, co-ordinator of this latest joint project, funded by the
Department for International Development (DFID) UK explained the background
to the day:
‘In 1999 staff from Fort Hare and the Open University were working
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, jointly running a workshop for Ministers of
Education on new approaches to training and supporting teachers in Africa,
particularly in rural communities. The workshop was held in the beautifully
equipped United Nations building. After one very busy day a few of us
(Nhlanganiso, Bob and myself were all there) began talking about the way
technologies might help teachers. At the time many people were dismissive
of technology as an answer to Africa’s social and economic challenges.
But together we had seen that wireless communication was just round the
corner, we saw the first cell phones beginning to be used like a computer.
Why not try some experiments in the Eastern Cape to see how teachers like
Mandla and Vuyo here in Dongwe could gain access to the internet global
communication in order to see what the advantages ICT might afford rural
schools? After all, as Nelson Mandela has pointed out in A Long Walk to
Freedom:
“what struck me so forcefully was how small the planet had become
during my decades in prison…. “[ICT] had shrunk the world,
and had in the process become a great weapon for eradicating ignorance
and promoting democracy”.’
Out of this was borne DEEP, the Digital Education Enhancement Project,
a collaboration not just between Fort Hare and the Open University but
also with teachers in Egypt.
This ceremony celebrated the ongoing work of the DEEP project; a project
which has enjoyed incredible success and a project whose structure can
be replicated across numerous contexts.
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