Following the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic over the past two years and the mandatory partial adoption of online learning in schools across the country, it became clear Information Communication Technology (ICT) is a crucial part of the school system.
Experts contend that South Africa does not have much time on its side when it comes to ICT education. For every year that schools don't achieve e-readiness, many students are falling behind.
Nelson Mandela University Centre for Community Technologies Director, Professor Darelle van Greunen stated that the Covid-19 pandemic period proved that the country’s school system is not entirely e-ready.
“It's a stark reality that Covid brought to us is the fact that we need to do the catch-up within the South African environment. We were forced to go to the online platforms but of course, as we all know, our country is not entirely ready for that, and our schooling system most certainly is not.”
She adds that as much as online learning was adopted for learners to be educated, many of them were left behind due to not having access to an internet connection and they may not even have had the proper devices.
The professor further states that she hopes that, with the current state of the country’s ICT education, this has served as a slight wake-up call for the nation, and now it can afford to provide learners with the opportunity to truly join in and have access to the wider world.
She emphasised the importance of ensuring that teachers and School Governing Bodies (SGB) are equipped with the necessary skills, expertise and resources to provide ICT education.
Security has also been cited as being among the dominant obstacles to the provision of ICT resources in schools, as many often fall prey to incidents of vandalism and equipment theft, particularly in Gauteng.
The overall consensus is that all schools need to have an internet connection installed and teachers that are adequately equipped to go online.
The department should also ensure that they have the right policies in place to deal with this because there comes a host of other things, such as cybersecurity, among other things.
