TWO GRADE 7 LEARNERS from the Dennegeur Primary School who have earlier been injured in a bus accident, today (Tuesday, 18 October 2005) received laptops from the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) to help them keep up with their schoolwork.

Education MEC Cameron Dugmore presented a laptop to Abdul-Wagiet Botha, who is recovering from his injuries in the Grootte Schuur Hospital. Khanya also supplied a laptop to Tauriq Jackson, who is recovering from his injuries at home.

The WCED’s Khanya Technology in Education Project is currently installing a computer laboratory at the Dennegeur Primary School in Mitchell’s Plain. The Khanya team expects to complete the installation by the end of this week.

The project facilitators based at the WCED’s Metropole South Education Management and Development Centre (EMDC) provided the laptops so that the injured learners can also benefit from the launch of e-education at the school.

The Khanya Project, an initiative of the WCED to support teaching and learning in schools using information and communication technologies (ICT), has installed the latest CAMI software on the laptops, so that the learners can practice their numeracy and literacy skills while still in hospital or at home. Khanya facilitators will visit them regularly to show them what to do.

The project team decided to arrange the laptops, because they would be easier to use than desktop computers while lying in bed. Abdul-Wagiet and Tauriq will use the laptops until they return to school.

They were two of about 60 learners injured when the bus in which they were travelling crashed in Kloofnek Road, Cape Town, following an excursion to Table Mountain in August.

Addressing parents, senior hospital staff, department officials, Khanya and representatives from the CAMI software company in hospital today, MEC Dugmore said the laptops was one example of a number of ways in which the WCED support the children and assist the school.

He said the fact that Abdul-Wagiet will be visited in hospital by Khanya staff and teachers, is "an example of how the WCED works with other departments, like Health, in providing a learning home for all".

From the left, Beverley Job-Veziek of Khanya, Shaheed Gaidien, Principal of Dennegeur Primary, and Cameron Dugmore, Western Cape Education MEC, with Abdul-Wagiet Botha, a Grade 7 learner at Dennegeur Primary School in Mitchell's Plain. MEC Dugmore presented Abdul-Wagiet with a laptop to assist him with his schoolwork. Abdul-Wagiet is recovering in hospital from injuries sustained in the Dennegeur bus accident in August. Ms Job-Veziek is a Khanya facilitator and will visit Abdul-Wagied to show him how to use software on the computer to practice his maths and reading skills.

For enquiries, contact Gert Witbooi: 082 550 3938.