The Gauteng Department of Finance in South Africa has decided to scrap the Gauteng Online Schools Project in favour of e-learning solutions and is now issuing tenders for the new project.
HumanIPO reported in March a failed internet installation for the Gauteng Online School Project was given a second chance for completion following the expiry date of a five year tender, which left some schools waiting.
The Gauteng Department of Finance reportedly issued a tender last week, which seeks to invite prospective service providers to supply internet connectivity to schools.
The previous tender, which was awarded to Cloudseed, was cancelled in March this year.
The department’s intention for the new e-learning solution is to move from personal computers (PCs) to devices such as tablets.
A closed tender was reportedly issued last month to approximately 15 companies, which requested they supply 80,000 tablets for 1,600 schools, which calculates to each of the 1,600 schools receiving 50 tablets.
“The successful bidder’s connectivity solution must ensure maximum network availability, such that the entire quantum of (80,000) end-user devices are accommodated. It is preferable to have uncapped data per device on a monthly basis. However, this must be aligned to global norms,” the Independent Online (IOL) quoted the tender as stating.
The tender also stated: “It is not the intention of the GPG (Gauteng provincial government) to restrict bidders’ ideas [and] inventions… however, the GPG requires sufficient explanations and descriptions in order to make good value judgements.”
Further specifications in the tender state the connectivity solution must “be able to upscale to the province’s network solution in future”.
The new tender is different to the previous tender because it seeks to source software, devices and connectivity from various service providers as opposed to one supplier.
