Digital connectivity is no longer a luxury, but rather a necessity as access to information has become an essential part of modern-day life. UNICEF recently reported that connecting schools has the potential to boost GDP by up to 20 percent in the world’s least connected nations.

Sadly, many schools across South Africa struggle with the costs and infrastructure required to provide this for teachers and learners. Now, one Internet Service Provider (ISP) is stepping up to help.

Over the past eight years, ISP Cool Ideas has been expanding its fibre and LTE networks across the country, to expedite access to digital information, through high-speed connectivity. While doing so, through their Cool Schools initiative, they have collaborated with schools across eight provinces to date, to ensure that as the network grows, so does learner access to information, with the result that education can benefit.

The project started in 2015, when the first school, Parkhurst Primary in Johannesburg, was connected on a trial basis, and the rest, as they say, is history. Since then, new schools have been added every month with the result that Cool Ideas currently supplies over 300 schools with fibre access throughout the year. Additionally, the organisation has collaborated with fibre providers such as Vumatel, Evotel, Octotel and Frogfoot to ensure further support.

The Cool Schools Initiative aims to bridge the digital divide in South Africa by providing internet connectivity to underprivileged schools and schools in Cool Ideas coverage areas. Through this remarkable upliftment project, a free internet connection with speeds of up to 1 000Mbps (1Gbps) is provided to qualifying schools, enabling learners to access educational resources online. This way, the leaders of tomorrow are given the resources need to support their growth. Learn more about Cool Schools here.