Narrowing the digital divide in South Africa

Factors concerning our digital divide can be the following:

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     Affordability
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     Education
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     Language Barriers
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     Gender equality
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For us to reduce inequality in South Africa, we need to close the knowledge gap, or as now referred to – the digital divide. What is the digital divide you might ask? People having access to the latest gadgets and technology are able to take full advantage of all the opportunities in our digital economy. There is however, a massive percentage of people not being so privileged to have access to these technologies because of their circumstances – the language they speak, the area they live in, their gender and, sadly enough, the financial class they fall under.

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     Affordability
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To me, affordability and internet access goes hand in hand when it comes to the digital divide. Internet is available to us wherever we go, and it gives us unlimited, valuable information, but it is EXPENSIVE! Not everyone can afford it. Think of having to give in a school task – you have a class full of students where probably 40% of them have access to internet at home (whether on cell phones, computers, Wi-Fi, etc). The rest will have to make their way to a local library, if they have one in the area, or go to an internet café where they will have to pay for the needed information. Can they even afford that? Believe it or not, some of them can’t. And this only gets worse. Since the time when I was in school, it seems like teachers get more and more dependent on internet. Nowadays, almost every single task that is given to the students, requires internet access. Even paying a quick visit to the library isn’t good enough these days, because some of these tasks requires to be submitted online. Young people all over the country wishes to broaden their knowledge, wanting to study further, but because of the cost that goes along with this, they rather decide to not do it at all. I believe our country can make a difference in this. As ridiculous as this may sound – internet should be free. At least for students. Given you have a bursary or pay for your studies by yourself or even if you are still a scholar, internet usage should be free. So many people can use this to broaden their knowledge, do better in their school tasks or assignments, resulting in getting good marks and receiving the bursary you wished for. Something I can say that makes me proud to be a South African student, is the opportunity our country are now giving to first time students – to study for free. This is the type of boost that we need. This will already make a huge difference in the digital divide we have. This brings me to my next point –

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     Education
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Not every parent can afford sending their child to school, let alone university. In some areas, the children who gets to go to school, needs to travel far distances in order to be educated in even worse circumstances. In poor areas, the children do not even have tables and chairs to sit at, or stationary to write and learn with. Yes, they are able to go school, which is all that counts, but now what about the technology? These children can only dream of having the opportunity to work and learn on computers. Some schools are privileged to have this luxury (with sky high school fees of course), and some don’t. Sad part of it all is that it is sometimes the more computer literate person who gets the job and the good salary. From my point of view, this is unfair, and it creates a major gap between people who got educated in rich communities and people in poor communities. Being educated is not enough these days – the technologies that goes together with the education creates the gaps. Our schools do however have a system in place where they take the parents’ income into consideration and those who are not able to afford their child’s school fees, will not have to pay it themselves. They have a specific organisation in place for this. This helps closing the gap caused by education funds but does not solve the issue we have with technological inequities. My way to solve this? There should be no exceptions. Either all schools get enough funding in order to have laptops with proper information and fancy technologies to their access, or no schools have it at all – free of charge. This is the only way how we will be able to close these knowledge gaps and avoid being classified in certain ways because of our upbringing and circumstances.

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     Language barriers
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Most of the information available on the internet is in English. People speak different languages, and this is not always taken in consideration. Either English must be taught to everyone (as they are currently doing in schools) or they should employ better resources so that everyone can be provided the same information, but in their preferred language. Most schools and universities have taken English as their main language. Scholars and students now need to learn subjects in a language that they are most probably not even comfortable in speaking fluently. How should you learn something properly, when you don’t even know the meaning or pronunciation of some words? We live in a country with 11 official languages and it would only be fair and beneficial to our future if all forms of education can be given to us in our preferred language – whether this be English, Afrikaans, Sesotho or Xhosa. Yes we get taught different languages in school, but yet again going back to my first and second factor, not everyone had that privilege to go to school and be taught different languages and skills.

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     Lack of work opportunities
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As mentioned before, it is usually the skilled people who gets the dream job with the big salary. Of course, there is people that are most probably more willing to learn new skills and perform in their jobs, yet they have not had that opportunity because of the lack of education they had. Their parents could probably not afford getting them into a school at all. This can become a viscous cycle, as the poor people cannot afford to put their children in school, and these children will then not be able to get a good job opportunity. Don’t get me wrong, this is not the case in every household, but sadly there is a lot of people that cannot afford education, let alone afford a roof over their heads. How will these people ever be able to get out on top if they keep being treated unequal and never get a good job opportunity.

My solution to all of this? FREE EDUCATION AND INTERNET FOR EVERYONE! And not only free, but equal as well. People should be given the opportunity to make a success of their lives, regardless the circumstances they grew up in, the salary their parents get, the colour of their skin or the gender they are. Everyone deserves a shot at success and I believe, if taken on the right way, South Africa can make this happen. With the free tertiary education given to first time students now, we are already halfway there. We can reduce inequality and make this country the best in can be, make our citizens proudly South African!