For Africa, a skilled workforce that utilises ICT effectively is a key factor in determining its competitiveness in the global digital economy and for harnessing its natural resources for sustainable growth. The region faces considerable challenges in education ranging from the absence of quality teachers, outdated or unavailable learning and teaching materials, and inadequate physical space for fast-growing learners.
Over 110 million school children between 6 to 18 years of age are out of school in Africa. 37 million young people require technical and vocational training or other forms of education that facilitate paths to their employment. Only about 6% of secondary school graduates find places in higher education in sub-Saharan Africa.
The opportunities for using the Internet for learning are numerous in Africa. According to the International Telecommunications Union, more than a quarter of the African population 341 million had access to the Internet as of 2016, the majority of which are potential Internet learners. Over half the population has access to mobile phones.
Countries have also seen improved broadband connectivity at national levels through national backbone networks and internationally through a variety of submarine cables that landed on the western and eastern coast of the continent over the last decade. There is enough broadband capacity that can be used to serve the countries’ efforts to meet sustainable development goals in general, and to facilitate interactive and equitable learning in particular.
The last two decades have seen a variety of innovations in education delivered over the Internet. Many countries, including Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Dominica, Finland, Ghana, India, Kenya, Korea, Malaysia, Namibia, Nepal, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, Tanzania, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay and Zambia have been making progress in drawing up comprehensive polices for ICT in education.
They are providing students and teachers with necessary equipment and supporting the development of National Research and Education Networks. Progress with Open Educational Resources, Massive Open Online Classes Courses, cloud computing, and mobile learning has also created options for expanding learning opportunities anywhere and anytime.
Furthermore, global experiences show that access to ICT and adoption of learning materials should be paired with clear guidelines for measurement and assessment of ICT in education. The growing use of videos and interactive platforms available through Massive Open Online Courses and other forms of Open Educational Resources also means the low-bandwidth environments in many countries in Africa cannot support interactive gamified lessons.
Inhibitors
There is no reliable data on the use of the Internet for learning in Africa. Investment in ICT in education to date involved the rollout of Schoolnet projects and the establishment of National Research and Education Networks. Schoolnet projects typically begin with equipping selected league schools with computer labs, training teachers, and where possible, providing students and teachers with learning materials. Despite efforts over the last two decades, there has been limited success in rollout of ICTs and the Internet in African schools, because of lack of resources and the absence of a holistic and integrated vision and strategy.
It should be noted that the progress varies from one country to another. The improved broadband connectivity in countries like Botswana, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia has already enhanced learner and teacher access to the Internet. In other countries, connections to the Internet are limited. Despite the promises and significant penetration of mobile phones across the continent, mobile learning did not take off in Africa, because of high communications costs, low bandwidth, low penetration of smart phones and the absence of locally relevant applications on mobile devices.
The situation in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training institutions is not very much different. In the Technical and Vocational Education and Training environment, there is a tendency to treat ICTs as a vocation rather than an enabler for learning. Internet access is confined to computer labs or libraries of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training institutions.
Internet access has been improving in higher education institutions, thanks to efforts by champions in establishing National Research and Education Networks, and due to the funding from development partners such as the European Commission and the World Bank. However, the progress varies considerably, with only universities in Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia attaining acceptable degrees of access comparable to their peers in Asia and Latin America.
Governments’ lack of strategic vision and their limited capacity in terms of drafting holistic policies and strategies on learning powered by technology is one of the constraints to date. The efforts to bring gender equity as well as promoting equitable access to disabled people and ensuring child safety are very low in Africa. Efforts are underway in many countries to collect Educational Management Information Systems data. Yet this has not been used effectively to monitor the progress in education in general, and to assess the impact of ICT use in particular.
While access to mobile broadband has increased in urban areas, last-mile connectivity remains a challenge. With about half of the population more than 25km from the nearest fiber connection, broadband connection in rural areas remains very low. With over 70% of the population living in rural areas, the majority of those who need the Internet the most, such as rural schools, do not have it due to access challenges. The variation in regulation and strong market concentration around a few players also makes the cost of access high. Existing Internet providers tend to have outdated, low quality networks that are not optimally connected to national, regional and international Internet exchanges, or resilient against failures and outages.
Other challenges blocking Internet use in education in Africa include:
- Limited literacy and skills that are needed to participate in the Internet economy
- Lack of infrastructure to host and exchange locally available content
- Inadequate supportive infrastructure such as electricity
- High taxes on ICT hardware and software
Facilitators
Data from the International Telecommunications Union shows that over a third of the African population has access to the Internet today, and the potential of the Internet to transform the traditional closed, static education to a learner-centered and interactive model is very high. Trends in digital classrooms, cloud computing, MOOCs, social media, one-to-one computing and mobile learning have increased reach and opportunities for using the Internet for learning without the constraint of geography, disability, gender and other social and economic divisions.
The African continent has seen the growth of Internet connectivity in recent years, mainly due to availability of undersea cables and ubiquity of mobile phones. The total international bandwidth has reached close to 4.5 Terabits in 2015, and will rise higher following connection of the region to more submarine cables after 2009.
The number of Internet users has also seen an upward trend since then. International Telecommunications Union data indicates that number of the Internet users has doubled since 2009 to 25% in early 20165. While this shows an upward trend, about three-quarters of the African population does not have access to the Internet today. Moreover, there is a significant diversity in Africa, with only a few well- connected countries like Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Seychelles, South Africa, and Tunisia attaining a connectivity level of around half of the population. These countries also lead in utilising the Internet for education.
Road ahead
The African continent faces the toughest challenges in meeting these international goals, because the education sector confronts far more pressing needs ranging from lack of access to absence of high quality teachers. These challenges cannot be addressed at the current pace or simply by building more institutions or hiring additional teachers. Public spending on education has been growing in Africa, and policy makers have already been spending a substantial amount of national resources on education. In sub-Saharan Africa, the education budget accounts for about 5% of the Gross Domestic Product, which is second only to North America and Europe at 5.3%.
Neither domestic resources nor donor funding are likely to increase rapidly enough over the coming years, therefore policy makers need to devise alternative solutions to improve access to and quality of education. Alternative learning options that harness new technologies must be explored to promote training or learning opportunities on a lifelong basis to all individuals and, more importantly, to those traditionally under-served or marginalised groups – girls and special needs groups or disabled people.
Under the right conditions, the Internet offers an opportunity for addressing the learning needs of diverse groups in Africa, including the bulk of learners that are currently out of school, in a scalable and cost-effective way. A blended learning environment that leverages the Internet can potentially help connect education to work, improve the skills that allow youth to access employment, empower lifelong learners, and importantly, support women, girls and disabled people to participate in learning without space, time and other cultural and social barriers.
The participation in the global economy is now dependent on 21st-century skills, which includes the ability to navigate in the digital world. Progress in countries like India, China and South Korea shows that connectivity serves as a foundation for access to information economy jobs and advancing innovations.
In Africa today, using the Internet for learning is a very real possibility. More than a quarter of the African population 334 million has access to the Internet, the majority of which is young people and potential lifelong learners. There were 147 million Facebook users in Africa in June 2016, that is 43% of Internet users. However, such access to the Internet and heavy use of social media has not been harnessed systematically to advance education and learning at individual and institutional levels.
The most obvious benefit of the Internet for all learners is improved convenience. Students can take the classes according to their own schedules. Furthermore, the Internet opens up education in an informal setting, while also improving access to women, girls, those living in underserved rural areas and disabled people. From this standpoint, it contributes to the inclusion, equity, and learning outcome goals of sustainable development goals.
Excerpted from Internet for Education in Africa by Internet Society, released in May 2017.
How the Internet can help education in Africa
- Access to centralised training, capacity building, advisory services
- Access to distance learning, video conferencing
- Access to expensive research equipment and laboratories
- Access to experimental platforms for researchers to investigate, develop and test new technologies
- Allows students and teachers to access to educational materials, applications and online resources in an open and flexible manner
- Allows teachers access to virtual labs and workshops, and helps them to remain up to date in their field
- Connection of research and educational organisations with each other to foster collaboration
- Empower, support, enhance the work of teachers engaging with learners in new and more effective ways including those with special educational needs
- Enable schools to develop their websites and create platforms for interacting with other schools and nurturing virtual communities
- Facilitates learning without time or location constraints
- Fosters collaboration between teachers, learners, administrators
- Improve the affordability and availability of textbooks and other learning resources
- Internet connectivity can provide access to millions of educational materials that can be updated more regularly than what is possible today with printed products
- Linkages between academic and research community, industry, government, international research and educational networks
- Provide additional resources to students, helping them to interact and develop interactive skills
- Sharing of data-intensive applications and high-end computing assets
- Textbooks can be accessed over the Internet and as they are updated, can be downloaded to handheld devices for offline reading
Key takeaways
- 37 million young people require technical and vocational training or other forms of education that facilitate paths to their employment
- Access to the Internet and use of social media has not been harnessed systematically to advance education and learning at individual and institutional levels
- According to the International Telecommunications Union, more than a quarter of the African population had access to the Internet as of 2016, the majority of which are potential Internet learners
- Countries have seen improved broadband connectivity through national backbone networks and internationally through submarine cables
- Existing Internet providers tend to have outdated low quality networks that are not optimally connected to national, regional, international Internet exchanges, or resilient against failures and outages
- In Africa today, using the Internet for learning is a very real possibility.
- In sub-Saharan Africa, the education budget accounts for about 5% of the Gross Domestic Product, which is second only to North America and Europe at 5.3%
- More than a quarter of the African population 334 million has access to the Internet, the majority of which is young people and potential lifelong learners
- Neither domestic resources nor donor funding are likely to increase rapidly enough over the coming years, therefore policy makers need to devise alternative solutions to improve quality of education
- Only about 6% of secondary school graduates find places in higher education in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Over 110 million school children between 6 to 18 years of age are out of school in Africa
- Over half the population has access to mobile phones
- The opportunities for using the Internet for learning are numerous in Africa
- The variation in regulation and strong market concentration around a few players makes the cost of access high
- There has been limited success in rollout of Internet in African schools because of lack of resources and absence of integrated vision
- There is enough broadband capacity to meet sustainable development goals and to facilitate interactive learning in particular
- There were 147 million Facebook users in Africa in June 2016, that is 43% of Internet users
- While access to mobile broadband has increased in urban areas, last-mile connectivity remains a challenge
- With about half of the population more than 25km from the nearest fiber connection broadband connection in rural areas remains very low
- With over 70% of the population living in rural areas majority of those who need Internet do not have it due to access challenges
Challenges for the African education system
Access to schools
Students are often squeezed into overcrowded classrooms, classrooms that are falling apart, or learn outside. In countries like Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo, Mali, Niger, average class size is 50 students. Vast majority do not have toilets, electricity, drinking water.
Access to technical training
37 million out of school youth require some form of technical and vocational education for employment.
Access to tertiary education
Only 6% of young people in sub-Saharan Africa are enrolled in higher education institutions compared to the global average of 26%.
Conflicts
Armed conflict, across and within national borders, are prevalent in Africa, with devastating impacts on the livelihoods and education of millions of children and adults.
Exclusion due to disability
Large proportion of the world’s 93 million children with disabilities live in Africa.
Expense of schooling
School fees, uniforms, supplies are burdens to families. Where families cannot afford them, children are forced to stay at home.
Gender disparity
More girls are out of school in Africa than boys. 16.7 million girls are out of school in sub-Saharan Africa, 9.3 million of which will never set foot in a classroom.
Long distance to school
A walk to school of up to two hours is not uncommon.
Nutrition
Children often cannot follow lessons because they did not have a meal that day.
Quality and quantity of teachers
More than 7 out 10 of sub-Saharan African countries do not have enough teachers, especially in mathematics, science, foreign languages. According to UNESCO, sub-Saharan Africa needs 6.2 million teachers by 2030.
Teaching and learning materials
Absence of quality teaching and learning materials is a key challenge that contributed to the decline of the quality of education in the region.
