Many schools in South Africa are struggling to provide pupils with their first taste of the Internet and email.

One headteacher found a solution to his problem of scarce I.T. provision in the form of a free BB FlashBack Express program he found on the cover-mounted disc of a PC magazine.

Bantuvukani Higher Primary School, located in the township of Lamontville, just outside Durban in South Africa, has few technical assets to go around the large number of students.

Throughout the region, poor communities with limited resources are stretched to breaking point in order to provide computer-related education to children.

Headmaster, Lawrence Mpanya, said: "Most parents cannot even afford to pay the school fees, hence we have few financial resources. Educators are state-paid and we do not have the money to hire more staff."

The shortage of resources means that a total complement of 18 staff members have to teach an intake of 700 pupils between them – with many teachers having to tutor in several subjects in order to cover the required ground.

Mr Mpanya, who has a two-year university diploma in the use of computers in education, is not only the headmaster, but also teaches technology and computer literacy to 572 pupils from grades 5 to 9.

"I firmly believe that it is up to teachers to stay on top of technological developments and guide the students to use technology responsibly," he said. "Using the Internet and mobile phones are some of the key practices of the youth. If there is no teacher intervention someone else will teach children all the wrong things."

Mr Mpanya is a keen advocate of the Internet and has seen for himself the positive effects computer access can have on children’s behaviour.

"In my experience, teaching children about the Internet has had tremendous benefits," Mr Mpanya said. "Starting from a lax approach to work, quite a few learners have sprung to life, suddenly surpassing their peers in reading and learning.

"A typical class in our school has 60 learners and I have to split them into groups of 20 between three computers. Because of this, the pace of learning has been extremely slow and sometimes frustrating."

It was during one such frustrating lesson that Mr Mpanya happened upon an issue of a PC utilities magazine, with a cover disc containing a copy of BB FlashBack Express Screen Recorder.

"It stayed there for some time without me bothering to check it out," Mr Mpanya explained, "but when I eventually read it, I was horrified that I’d sat for so long on a golden jewel!

"BB FlashBack Express has taken away all my repetitive teaching tasks and has enabled me to structure my lesson plans so that they are 100% effective. I am able to record and review lessons before taking them to the children. They, in turn, are able to open the program on their own even during their free time and play and replay the recorded lessons as it suits them. Each child can learn everything at his or her own pace at any time, on any day. Children grasp lessons much quicker, and the playback part with its vocals - and sometimes music - thrills them as if they were learning the words to a favourite song.

"The most thrilling part is the on-screen recording. BB FlashBack Express records accurately. Every key stroke you make, every mistake, is recorded, therefore the action is exactly as it was. That is why lessons have to have a well-prepared script to read from.

"To record an Internet lesson or any other, I fit the microphone wire-end into the computer recording socket, turn on FlashBack Express recorder, and talk away as I launch the Internet, or whatever lesson, to make step-by-step instructions."

Mr Mpanya has been so pleased with BB FlashBack Express that he has managed to raise enough money to purchase a big screen projector, so that the on-screen action can be seen by his whole class.

His closing comment: "Take a bow BB FlashBack Express!"