On 5 October 2026 the North West Department of Education in South Africa approved an invitation to bid for a panel of suppliers for Physical Sciences teaching and learning support materials for Grades 10–12, over three years from 2026/2027 to 2028/2029. The invitation, numbered EDU 05/26 NW, closes on 3 November 2026. In its own words, the department "intends to establish a panel of qualified service providers to supply, package, distribute and maintain a catalogue of CAPS-compliant Physical Sciences resources, apparatus, chemicals, laboratory equipment, consumables and protective equipment for Grades 10-12."
The background section of the specification names the problem directly: the equipment "will support both the teachers and learners in addressing the classroom practical work and projects", and it will help teachers teach Physical Sciences content more effectively, "which poses a challenge to our teachers if they don't have such equipment."
What the bid buys
Each selected school in the four provincial districts is to receive one Science kit, which includes 98 items. The same document also allows schools to procure through an approved catalogue rather than a fixed kit.
The department may order items from the kit later for top-up purposes, and the framework is meant to enable annual replenishment of consumables and replacement of damaged equipment.
One of the stated aims of the catalogue is to "improve laboratory functionality across the province."
Bid EDU 05/26 NW in four numbers, as written in the specification. © Vardix Group
The part a kit cannot cover
A bid like this is the right first step: practical work needs apparatus, and the department says so. Our reading of the same document is that it also shows where the gap remains. In our reading, one kit in a school is shared by every class that needs it. The framework itself plans for annual replenishment of consumables and replacement of damaged equipment. And in our experience, part of what science lessons ask learners to understand is hard to see on a bench at all — the inside of a closed mechanism, for example.
That is the half of the lesson software can carry. The learner can prepare before the demonstration, repeat it afterwards as many times as needed, and look inside what the apparatus keeps closed — without using up a reagent or waiting for the class's turn with the kit. It does not replace the experiment; in our experience it makes the one demonstration a school can afford go further.
Where ROQED Science fits
ROQED Science is the group's interactive 3D classroom for physics, chemistry, biology and earth science. ROQED describes it as a program that turns a regular classroom into a virtual laboratory, where middle and high school students simulate and conduct educational demonstrations in natural science subjects. Its own product page lists 330+ physics and 370+ chemistry models and courses, a study mode in which teachers and students rotate and explore models from any angle, and tools for building interactive lessons and assessments.
It runs on Windows and the web, so a pilot does not depend on headsets, and it already ships in eighteen languages.
Study mode in ROQED Science: a mechanism taken apart so that the inside can be seen. © Vardix Group — ROQED
For education distributors
This particular bid is for physical resources; software is not part of its scope, and we do not suggest otherwise. What it shows a distributor is the buyer and the problem: an education department, in writing, saying that practical science is hard to teach without equipment, and setting up a three-year framework under which orders are issued as and when required. A partner who already sells apparatus and laboratory supplies to schools and education departments can bring the software half of the same lesson to the same buyer.
If you sell into schools or ministries of education and want to add ROQED Science to your portfolio, the partnership form is the place to start.