A computer in every class
Mmusi Maimane
● The direct and knock-on effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown have shone a light on the stark inequality gap in SA, calling into question our efforts to address the matter in a meaningful way.
The widening chasm between the “haves” and the “havenots” is not only unjust but unsustainable, and is fast approaching breaking point.
It is in this light and in the context of Covid-19 that we must grasp with both hands this rare opportunity to collectively focus on addressing structural inequalities to build a nation that is fair, reconciled and provides opportunity for all.
Nowhere is inequality in SA more prevalent than in education. Both the availability and quality of education are so dramatically skewed along racial and class lines that the notion of “equality of opportunity” is simply a myth. And much of the national debate relating to education inequality centres on the source of the problem, rather than ways of fixing it.
The problem was created during our country’s painful past, via the vehicle of Bantu education. But it is sustained by our current approach. With an annual cheque of R262.5bn, the basic education ministry boasts one of the largest line items in the budget.
Despite this, the quality of education offered to the vast majority of our children is substandard. Lack of resources and infrastructure, pit toilets, crowded classrooms, unaccountable teachers — we rightly expect much more progress than we’ve witnessed over the past 26 years.
Horace Mann, a pioneer of the US public schooling system, famously called education the “great equaliser of the conditions of men”. Sadly, this does not hold true in the South African context.
While 78% of children cannot read for meaning in any language by the time they reach grade 4, others are learning to code and write computer programs. This chasm is where the idea of equality of opportunity in education is exposed as false.
There are the obvious, basic steps to take to improve education across the board. These include investment in infrastructure, incentivising private-sector funding to previously disadvantaged schools, training and examining of teachers via teacher training colleges, strengthening curricula in line with the needs of our labour market, and loosening the grip of unions by giving governing bodies greater autonomy. These avenues must be pursued.
However, the flashing red light that requires urgent intervention is the “digital divide” that is widening the inequality gap in SA’s education system.
If we don’t address this as a priority, the “catch-up” game for poor and under-resourced schools will be beyond their reach. In the next six years, almost 6-million jobs in SA will be digitally automated. The world is rapidly changing and we owe it to our children to offer them a fighting chance.
In a fast-digitalising world, the overwhelming majority of learners are stuck with a significant disadvantage. To put the digital divide into perspective, Stats SA, in its most recent General Household Survey (2018), found that only 10.4% of homes had access to the internet via a computer.
According to the basic education department’s latest education infrastructure system report, from August 2019,only 20.2% of schools had internet connectivity for teaching and learning. The Eastern Cape (10.8%), KwaZuluNatal (9.2%) and Limpopo (3.8%) are well below the national average. The same report found that just 36.4% of schools had computer centres.
Bridging this digital divide requires interventions that improve the quality and extent of access to technology, and skills and literacy in relation to technology. In effect, to strive towards what tech writer Terence Lee terms “digital equity” — equal access to computers, free or affordable broadband and computer literacy for all learners.
A mammoth task, but one we ought to have begun years ago.
I propose three interventions that, if pursued diligently, would go a long way in bridging the digital divide and expanding opportunities for school children from lowincome households.
First, the department of basic education needs to ringfence a sizeable portion of its budget to fund a mass rollout of broadband connectivity and computer centres in all schools currently without them. This is the starting point. Without access at school, albeit limited, learners in poor communities won’t learn basics and will in turn be left too far behind.
Second, the government must order that free access to learning and education websites offered by network providers during the lockdown be extended. This will allow learners to access such material free of charge via cellphones.
MTN has zero-rated more than 100 websites, while Telkom has zero-rated more than 60 education sites, and other telecommunications companies must follow suit. Moreover, the state should periodically broaden the category of learning material and site access. Unaffordability of data can never be a barrier to learning, and these companies have a social role to play in this regard.
Finally, we need to establish a public-private partnership that provides affordable digital access to low-income households, much as the “ConnectHomeUSA” programme does in the US.
This programme, run through the US equivalent of the department of human settlements, acts as a portal to bring together stakeholders such as device providers and refurbishers, internet service providers and digital literacy and content providers.
Families in social housing, or RDP housing for our purposes, are offered subsidised digital hardware, connectivity and education and training according to their educational needs. The US programme has been a resounding success since its inception in 2015, extending internet access to 37% of assisted households with children in identified communities.
The digital age is upon us and in turn the digital divide is getting worse. It is time we stood up on behalf of all our learners and fought for a fairer education system. Without it, education will remain the great “unequaliser” in SA.