Statement by Cameron Dugmore, MEC for Education in the Western Cape

The long arm of the law is now using technology to track thieves who steal computers and computer parts from Western Cape schools.

Thieves target between 10% and 12% of computer laboratories installed by the Khanya Project of the Western Cape Education Department (WCED), despite strong security.

The thieves are not always successful, according to André Pietersen, ICT Implementation Coordinator at Khanya. However, some do get past various security systems to steal valuable computer equipment used by schools to support teaching and learning.

Mr Pietersen told a conference of 41 school principals from the WCED’s Metropole South District today (5 June 2006) that help is on hand.

Khanya is working with a service provider to install software, which automatically scans all systems to record serial numbers of every computer and every part in every computer in the school.

The data is fed to a centralised database and is provided to the police and second-hand shops, who can then use the data to check whether any computer or parts of computers were previously stolen.

Mr Pietersen said it was important to record serial numbers of both computers and parts because thieves usually broke up computers in IT “chop shops” to sell the components.

The system sends the data to the central database automatically via the internet. Schools can also back up the data onto a flash disk. Khanya encourages schools to use both systems, in case internet connections go down at any point.

The software automatically detects whether any parts have been added or taken out of any computer or the school network, so that those with the right password can maintain and update the system.

Khanya already uses the system in the WCED’s Metropole East District where police recently used the data to identify stolen hard drives. The project team is now in the process of rolling out the system to other education districts in the Western Cape.

Khanya has completed projects in 884 Western Cape schools so far and is currently completing projects in a further 167 schools.

Khanya or donor partners have funded 21 295 computers on Khanya computer laboratories to date, while schools have funded a further 13 717, bringing the total number of computers supported by the project to 35 012.

Khanya is supporting 21 119 teachers on how to use computers to enhance teaching and learning, for the benefit of 711 416 learners to date.

For further information on the computer security system, contact André Pietersen at Khanya, tel 082 437 4838.

For enquiries, contact Gert Witbooi:  082 550 3938, or gwitbooi@pgwc.gov.za.

Visit our website: http://wced.wcape.gov.za

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