Page 25 - Thetha Issue 6

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Online education – where is SA?

Time is not on our side. Our learners urgently need access to online education and all the incredible
e-resources that should be rolled out to every single school in the country. By Professor Darelle van
Greunen, Director of the Centre for Community Technologies (CCT), Nelson Mandela University

hen South African schools communications technology (ICT)
were closed during the landscape is rapidly evolving. “The challenge is
Wpandemic, online learning A good example is the new
was not an option for most, due to a Abrehot public library in Addis not that we don’t
deficit of infrastructure, devices and Ababa, Ethiopia, an initiative of the have strategies;
skills in educational technologies. prime minister, spanning 19 000
During a recent visit to East square metres in the heart of the it’s that we lack
Africa, it became evident that city. We went there on a Sunday and
South Africa is fast falling behind it was packed with young people implementation,
in the advancement of technology sitting and reading and working on and this must
in education and a range of their laptops.
different spaces, as is happening in There is 5G internet throughout change”
countries like Ethiopia, Uganda and and the whole four-storey library
Kenya, where the information and is a user-friendly, people’s space.

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