The Eastern Cape’s matric tablet programme is no longer operating as intended, according to multiple reports. GroundUp and other outlets contacted schools across the province and found that none of the 12 schools reached are still running the programme. Students and teachers therefore do not currently have access to the tablets through the initiative.
The reports say the disruption is tied to tablet issues, including devices being lost or kept in cupboards rather than being used for teaching and learning. Moneyweb frames the programme in terms of its reported scale, citing an R686 million allocation, while Daily Maverick focuses on the practical outcome at school level. Both describe the same overall situation: the programme has stalled, with tablets not available for classroom use.
While the outlets share the same findings from school contacts, they differ in emphasis—one highlights the programme’s reported cost and scope, and the other concentrates on the on-the-ground breakdown in implementation. The common thread is that the initiative has effectively stopped in the schools contacted, leaving the original purpose unmet.
