OPINION: The fourth industrial revolution has been touted as a means of supercharging education but, despite the ubiquitous prevalence of smartphones in South Africa, high data costs, a lack of computers or laptops and connectivity constraints meant that many learners and students struggled to take advantage of online learning during lockdowns.
By Paul Esterhuizen, CEO of School-Days
Online learning has long been put forward as a potential solution to some of the many challenges facing education in South Africa. Lockdowns imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 forced schools and universities to quickly pivot to online learning, putting this method of education delivery to the test like never before. What soon became apparent, however, is that online learning is not without its own challenges.
While some schools and most tertiary institutions implemented online learning during the pandemic, many did not. In fact, according to a Statistics SA report, only 11.7% of schools offered remote learning nationally in 2020 with the majority offering rotational options instead of remote learning. The urban-rural divide was particularly prominent with twice as many learners in urban areas given the option of remote learning compared with rural areas. The report also revealed significant inequality when it came to internet access with a higher proportion of rural learners lacking internet access.
The reports from tertiary education students is similarly gloomy. A Department of Higher Education study on the social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on students revealed that only 38% of students at TVET colleges had access to online learning facilities, half of students had difficulty communicating with their institution during lockdown and nearly a third who had access to online resources had no suitable place to study.
A Juta survey which focused on universities alone found that the quality and effectiveness of online teaching resources was a significant issue for university students, with more than half of respondents saying that online learning was significantly less effective than in-person teaching because of limitations on the online resources available to students and the software used to facilitate lecturing. An alarming 32% said they struggled to access online course content due to not having constant access to a computer or the internet and nearly a quarter cited high data costs as a prohibitive factor.
A World Bank report titled “Remote Learning During Covid-19: Lessons from Today, Principles for Tomorrow”, which assessed the learnings from education on low- and middle-income countries between March 2020 and October 2021, revealed that globally remote learning did not produce as much learning as in-person schooling prior to the pandemic, with poorer countries in particular lagging wealthier nations.
The report found that effective remote learning requires effective teachers, suitable technology and engaged learners. “A teacher with high subject content knowledge, technical skills in using technology and supporting resources, and appropriate pedagogical techniques is likely to be more effective at remote learning than a teacher lacking some or all of these attributes.”
It also noted that what was once a digital divide has become a digital chasm for many, particularly for those learners who did not have parental engagement and support, with marginalised children and vulnerable groups including girls, students with disabilities and ethnic minorities likely to be disproportionately affected.
The fourth industrial revolution has been touted as a means of supercharging education but, despite the ubiquitous prevalence of smartphones in South Africa, high data costs, a lack of computers or laptops and connectivity constraints meant that many learners and students struggled to take advantage of online learning during lockdowns.
The status of online education in SA
Earlier this year, the government announced that it planned to introduce a new online school system in South Africa with 18 000 public schools expected to be digitally connected and minimum standards for online schools to be introduced.
Tertiary education institutions are also ramping up their online offerings. In March 2022, Regenesys Business School announced that it was expanding its online course offering by launching on Udemy, the world’s largest online learning platform. Udemy currently offers more than 204 000 courses in more than 75 languages with about 54 million students.
A number of local organisations have partnered with Udemy, including MultiChoice, which offers its DStv and GOtv customers with access to Udemy’s online courses, and FNB, which offers customers access to finance, IT, marketing, personal development, teaching and others courses on Udemy. FNB’s eBucks members can enrol in up to six courses per year for a discounted activation fee of only R50 per course with no course fee.
An impressive local success story is Go1, an e-learning ecosystem that provides its customers with access to the world’s largest curated learning and development library from any web-enabled device. The platform provides more than 150 000 pieces of content available in its online library in 17 different languages and content formats ranging from video tutorials to classroom lectures, audiobooks and structured assessments. Its content is provided by leading online education providers such as Pearson, EdX, Coursera and Skillsoft as well as Blinkist and the Harvard Business Review.
There is no question that online learning offers significant potential, offering learners and students greater flexibility as well as savings on travel expenses and time. It also means learners can study at their own pace. However, despite the very obvious benefits, the reality is that a digital-first learning platform won’t work for everyone. In particular, a fully online programme won’t work for students who don’t have the necessary digital hardware and data connectivity.
Drawing on lessons learnt during the pandemic, the World Bank report proposed five principles for re-imagining online learning in the future. The first principle is to adopt suitable technology to ensure remote learning is fit for purpose. This needs to take into account access and utilisation of technology by both teachers and learners and digital skills levels. At the same time teachers need to be supported to acquire and use the necessary technical and pedagogical competencies.
The second principle is to prioritise effective teachers by using technology to enhance their effectiveness, and provide teachers with professional development to help them develop the skills needed to be an effective teacher in a remote setting.
Thirdly, meaningful two-way interactions between learners and teachers need to be established.
Fourthly, learners need to be sufficiently engaged. This requires ensuring that parents too are engaged to help support learners access remote learning opportunities.
Lastly, the co-operation of all stakeholders is required, including government departments, public and private sectors, teacher groups and school principals, to ensure that the remote learning system keeps adapting, learning and improving.
For online learning to be more widely rolled out requires all stakeholders in the education value chain to prioritise quality and accessible digital content and support. At the same time, learners and students need to be able to access reliable and affordable internet access and teachers need to be provided with the required resources.
As the World Bank report concludes, it is only when the three complementary components – teachers, students and technology – are well aligned that “remote learning has the potential to address the inequality in learning that has held back progress on learning poverty for far too long”.
Education