Overcoming South Africa’s digital divide

THE advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) was met with much excitement and anticipation, particularly by the youth.

In July last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa stated that “the 4IR is the answer to South Africa’s economic woes and widening inequality gap”.

The lockdown would, therefore, test the country’s readiness for this global technological movement.

For pupils in the higher and basic education sector, this would mean they would have to make use of platforms such as Zoom, WhatsApp and their school websites to keep up with their curriculums. However, this was met with questions and criticism about the readiness to test the theory. This, then, brought the question: is South Africa ready for the 4IR and E-Learning?

According to the World Economic Forum, the rapid spread of the Covid19

virus has resulted in the closure of schools across the globe, leading to an estimated 1.2 billion children not attending school. In South Africa, this is estimated to be more than 11 million school attendees.

Now, for those youths who have the privilege of attending private schools, exploring online learning may not be much of an issue. Their parents may have laptops, tablets and the internet at their disposal. So keeping up with their curriculums may be a breeze.

However, have we considered the plight of those pupils and students who live in rural areas and townships? Have we taken the time to consider that they may not have the necessary tools – such as laptops, tablets or even a smartphone – to keep up with their schooling?

For those living in rural areas such as Hlankomo and Mdeni in the Eastern Cape, attempting something as mundane as a simple phone call is often an impossibility. The long-standing issues with data costs are also factors.

According to a State of Mobile Web 2019 report released by Opera, South Africa’s data costs are among the most expensive in Africa.

Considering the widening inequality gap, these factors played a role in entrenching the digital divide in South Africa.

With these realities in mind, the government has partnered with relevant stakeholders to make learning accessible to all.

The Department of Higher Education has stated that interventions have been put in place to include the development and implementation of an effective multi-modal remote learning system.

Part of the department’s interventions also included the physical delivery of learning materials to pupils and students where they may not have any means of accessing digital supplies.

Although the nationwide lockdown presented the Basic Education sector with the challenge of abruptly going online, organisations such as the Africa Teen Geeks, the Sasol Foundation and various other organisations partnered with the government to combat the growing challenge of accessing digital education during this period.

This was done by making educational programmes accessible on TV and radio. These interventions and the use of public/private partnerships are the future and are likely to continue beyond the pandemic.

What we, as the youth, can learn during this time is that even in adversity there is an opportunity. 4IR represents the future of education in South Africa, and may soon become the new normal.