Recently, with much fanfare, computer tablets were distributed to a number of schools in Gauteng. Also supplied were electronic whiteboards for teachers.

Enthusiastic people explained how much this would advance education. I am afraid that I do not agree. I have serious misgivings about this so-called modern approach. I believe that it will not work.

Firstly, we have to yet again ask the very fundamental question: What is education? My simple definition is that education is the selection of stuff which enables a person to earn an income. Being one of the world’s best polar bear hunters in the Northern Cape will not help a person too much. So, we have to be able to teach people to be productive.

Education consists of two distinct parts: the information part and the thinking part. It is pointless having a whole load of information in your head if you cannot do anything with it.

To my mind, by far the more important part of education is the thinking bit – the problem solving bit. That is why maths and science are so important. People should study maths and science not necessarily because they want to learn maths and science, but because these subjects cause people to have to fight problems in their heads.

Maths and science presents challenge. There are go and no-go gates to getting something right. Two plus two is not five, no matter how much you may want it to be so. If you do not get four, you will not get the right answer. So, doing maths is like taking your brain to the gym.

When I do maths, I will write it on paper; then, if I do not get the answer I want, I will try changing something in line four, and then alter something in line six. I then draw lines from line four to six to show me why one comes after the other, or to indicate the problem term. For example, if you want an aeroplane to take off faster, you can reduce the weight of the aircraft or increase the power of the engine. So, in doing the maths, one keeps changing these numbers or aspects of equations, until the combinations start to come out to give what one is looking for. I cannot scribble and cross out on a tablet; I can only do it on paper.

Learners need to be able to draw arrows from line 10 to line 14 and write ‘move to here’, and so on. This is easy with paper.

When I lecture at universities, business schools and suchlike, I want to be able to draw on a whiteboard or blackboard. I do not want to tap computer keys linked to a smart electronic board. When I ask a group of students to compose a plan, I want to be able to write at an angle or draw arrows showing what concept leads to what potential solutions. I want to be able to dramatically cross out an incorrect concept and write in the correct one. This is all brain training.

It strikes me that many people think that, somehow, education is about acquiring a vast bank of ‘knowledge’ in the form of facts. They think that tablets linked to the Internet are better at this than having a live teacher. Sadly, this is not true. Talking about ‘paperless’ class- rooms really is the wrong way to go.

Then, of course, one comes to the practicality of tablets, in general. They are expensive and will be real targets for theft. I predict that they will be stolen or lost at a great rate, like one a day or more frequently. What happens if a learner loses his or her tablet? Is it just tough luck or do the authorities then buy a new one?

Education is like learning gymnastics – you do not learn it by reading a book; you learn it by trying over and over again until you get the hang of it. Then you practise until you are good, and can do backwards flips with your eyes shut.

True education is a pencil-and-paper exercise. It is a personal battle with one’s own mind to wire the brain up to be a functioning machine. It is not a case of building library shelves in one’s head and then piling books of info on the shelves.