Disadvantaged and underserved people in South Africa often lack access to essential services. As a result, one of the main priorities of the Government since 1994 has been to extend the quality and range of essential services from previously advantaged segments of South Africa to townships, informal settlements and rural areas. In the past, ICT access was not considered an essential service, however with the evolving global community and the increasing demand for technical and ICT Entrepreneurs, there is an increasing recognition that universal services should go beyond the provision of telephonic services and include more advanced digital services.
The South African government has made attempts to provide access to ICT and ICT Skills Development in the form of part-time and permanent access points. Some of the access points include Multi-Purpose Community Centers (MPCCs), Telecenters, Cyber labs, Personal Information Terminals (PITs), Department of Communication Web Internet Laboratories (DoCWILs), Citizen’s Post Offices (CPOs), as well as Public Libraries. The majority of these centers in rural areas remain underutilized mainly due to costs associated with the use of ICT services, difficulties in accessing these facilities as a result of the sparsely populated nature of rural settlements, as well as lack of computer training.
Nzabela MOBILE Computer Training (200 – 427 NPO) has identified the challenges faced by the rural population of South Africa and proposes a very cost effective initiative to address these challenges. We are proposing the roll-out of mobile classroom where the YOUTH can get quality computer training from experienced facilitators at no cost to them. The classrooms will feature a customised 12mtr long containers on wheels, each with 6 desk spaces to accommodate 12 learners at a time. One of the major advantages of these classroom units is the fact that they can be moved from one place to the next, bringing training to the rural population without having to travel long distances and spend a lot of money, which they do not have, to access them.
