Around 450 South African schools are embracing connected classroom technology from search giant Google.

This is according to Karen Walstra, an education consultant in South Africa.

Walstra was addressing media on Monday during a Google 'virtual field trip' of Johannesburg's Constitutional Court, the Old Fort and Number 4 prison.

Monday's virtual tour, relayed via a Google+ Hangout and live YouTube video feed to seven schools, was the second in a series of what Google calls "Connected Classrooms": a programme aimed at exploring historical spots related to South Africa's twenty years of democracy.

However, South African schools are not just using Google for virtual tours: educators and teachers are also utilising the search giant's services that are typically reserved for enterprise users.

These services, which are free for schools and universities, include using a school's own domain name for Google account purposes instead of 'Gmail' email accounts. Other offerings include greater storage space on the search giant's 'Drive' service.

"When I last looked we were about 450 (schools using Google's education services)," said Walstra.

"Schools register themselves because it's free," Walstra added.

Walstra went on to say that Google's forms solution, for example, "is the best life-saver that a teacher can have."

She noted that teachers are using this technology to send out questionnaires to children. Meanwhile, there are even Google add-ons that can then help mark these exercises.

Additional use-cases include schools using Google Calendar and Hangouts to communicate with each other, while parents can even talk to their children's teachers using this video chat technology.

Google further implements initiatives such as training, educator groups and academies to help educators and teachers equip themselves with skills necessary to implement the technology.

Luke McKend, country director at Google South Africa, said Monday that while the search giant is a small player in the education space, it is working to scale up services it offers.

"We want learners to be excited and inspired. And it's hard to be excited and inspired if all you've got is a blackboard in front of you," said McKend.

"But if you can do this and show people what's really going on, I think you do a lot more," added McKend.

According to Walstra, South Africa has 25,000 schools.

Criticism; though, has been levelled at South Africa's education sector.

Despite being Africa's second largest economy after Nigeria, a Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) research project in 2007 placed South Africa at position eight out of fifteen other countries on the continent.

A lack of quality education is also blamed for South Africa's high unemployment rate of 25%.