Govt pledges equal digital opportunities for disadvantaged learners

The Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Solly Malatsi, says the government is working to ensure that learners from disadvantaged communities enjoy equal digital opportunities.

He was speaking at the launch of a mobile digital laboratory at the Fontein Full-Service School in Nelson Mandela Bay, in the Eastern Cape.

The lab will benefit more than 800 learners with basic computer skills and also assist teachers with the integration of technology in the classroom.

The venture is a public-private partnership, and Malatsi says a collaborative effort is essential to address digital inequalities.

The Eastern Cape has more than 5,000 public schools, and a substantial number of these schools are without IT facilities.

This leaves thousands of learners unable to access the digital space.

Fontein Primary School was identified as one of the schools that required access to E-learning.

This lab is a public-private partnership collaboration.

Minister Malatsi says collaborations are the best way forward to equip schools.

CYBER LAB LAUNCH | 19 October 2026 The Principal of Fontein Primary School, Gary Groenewald, together with Sanders Hansa, a teacher at the school and leader of the Cyber Lab project, expressed their excitement about this exciting opportunity for learners. https://t.co/4oRCJvfNPK — Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (@NMandelaBaymuni) October 19, 2026 “We also need municipalities to come to the party.

We need provincial governments and the Departments of Education in these provinces to ensure that the connectivity provided to the schools is also of the level of quality, that can cope with the size of the school, you would find that in most instances, the school’s rollout program provides 10 megabytes per second.

That is slow when you look at the connectivity that is in here.

And it’s a point that we are emphasising with the schools.

The schools, the Department of Education, together with the provincial government, are responsible for ensuring that the network is available in the school,” says Malatsi.