Khanya Wins Leader in Empowerment Award

The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) is pleased to announce that its Khanya Project has won the prestigious Technology Top 100 (TT100) Leader in Empowerment Award for 2006. Khanya is an initiative of WCED to enhance teaching and learning using information and communications technologies (ICT).

Mosibudi Mangena, Minister of Science and Technology, said: “The Technology Top 100 Awards are recognised as the premier business excellence awards in South Africa. This celebration of excellence is also a celebration of truly South African innovation”.

The citation for the Leader in Empowerment Award says that it honours the enterprise “that has best delivered on its commitment to incorporating all South Africans into the business of Science and Technology”.

“The Leader In Empowerment Award recognises tangible contributions made towards growing the skills and experience required to build a knowledge-based economy, drawing on the inputs of all South Africans.”

Kobus van Wyk, Manager of the Khanya Project, and Clinton Walker, Deputy Manager, received the award at a banquet at the Sandton Convention Centre on Thursday, 16 November 2006.

Cameron Dugmore, MEC for Education in the Western Cape, said: “We congratulate Mr Van Wyk and the whole Khanya team. The awards reflect our commitment to ensuring that the children of the Western Cape have the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in the knowledge economy of the 21st century.”

The TT100 Award is the latest in a series of awards that have honoured Khanya in the Western Cape, in the country and internationally.

Khanya has installed computer laboratories in 613 schools in the Western Cape to date and is in the process of equipping a further 241 schools in the province.

The project ensured that every high school in the province had a computer laboratory by the end of 2005, as schools prepared to introduce the Further Education and Training (FET) curriculum for Grades 10 to 12.

Khanya is also making steady progress in providing computer equipment to primary schools. About 200 schools have provided their own equipment, which means that ICT is or will shortly be supporting education delivery at 66% of Western Cape schools. There are about 1,500 schools in the Western Cape.

The WCED has already ensured that all schools in the province are connected to the internet.

Khanya’s aim is not simply to ensure that learners are computer literate. The primary aim is to use ICT to support teaching and learning.

For this reason, Khanya focuses on teacher training and support to ensure that teachers know how to use ICT to enhance education.

The Khanya team has trained 15,773 educators to date, while 524,179 learners now have access to ICT thanks to Khanya. Khanya focuses in particular on schools in poor communities.

Started in 1990, TT100 has the strong support of both government and the private sector. The Department of Science and Technology has mandated TT100 to “to celebrate South Africa’s role-models in science and technology”.

Eskom is the premier corporate partner and additional private sector partners include the South African Academy of Engineering, TBM Communications, and Financial Mail Innovations. TT100 is a member of the Da Vinci group of companies.

Objectives of the awards include recognising how technology and innovation can be used to achieve objectives; benchmarking against peers; and providing third-party appraisal efforts in using and developing technology. TT100 is South Africa’s longest running business excellence award, recognising technology and innovation.

The awards acknowledge outstanding work in six categories, for Leaders in Innovation, Research and Development, Commercialisation, Empowerment, Portfolio Management and Social Innovation.

For further information, contact:
Kobus van Wyk
Manager, Khanya Project
Cell: 083 374 4853
Email: kvanwyk@pgwc.gov.za

For enquiries:
Paddy Attwell
Director of Communications

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