Using generators supplied and installed by Master Power Technologies, Curro schools are ensuring their electronic learning environments are not left in the dark during load-shedding.
Curro owns a number of private schools around South Africa that are dedicated to providing a world-class education to all grades at affordable prices. The Curro vision is to deliver quality education based on international best practices. Currently the group operates more than 40 schools, with more in the pipeline.
Based on international best practise and the need for sustainable
educational processes, Curro has embarked on a process of moving away from paper-based education where possible. It is therefore making use of tablet computers to ensure its learners and teachers have access to all the information they require.
These tablet computers link to each school’s computer network via a wireless network which is also dependant on electricity to function
properly. However, despite the tablets having a built in battery to
sustain them, the wireless routers instantly switch off during a power outage, leaving the learners without communications to the schools servers and the information they need to access.
“Unfortunately, tablets still require electricity to recharge,” says Robert Brandt, regional sales manager at Master Power Technologies. “Batteries run out of power and with rolling blackouts becoming a fact of life once again, Curro has to ensure both the tablets and the electronic equipment they link to are not rendered useless each time the power dies.”
To ensure learners and teachers have access to the resources they need at all times, Curro retained Master Power Technologies to install generators at its schools to ensure a stable supply of power to all its computing requirements. Brandt says four schools had generators installed before the end of 2014, and the project will continue in 2015.
Paperless education is the future as all the learners need is a tablet. All their textbooks can be downloaded to the devices along with their class work, making it easier to keep abreast of everything on the syllabus and to collaborate with each other. However, electronic devices and Internet access depend on electricity.
Without a stable electrical supply, the tablets become useless after only a few hours. With the assistance of Master Power Technologies, Curro schools are embracing the future, whilst ensuring teachers and their learners are not left in the dark when the lights go out.
