Digital revolution tonic to development

Lazarus Sauti

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan once said: “Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development… It is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.”

This means education is the bedrock of social and economic development as it is fundamental to growth and development and serves as critical indices to measure progress of development agenda.

It is also a most powerful driving instrument of reducing poverty; improving healthcare services; and ensuring peace and stability.

However, the education sector in the Southern African Development Community is facing a stern test as it has moved beyond reading and writing to the development of skills and capacities in Information and Communication Technology.

“ICT now permeates the educational environments and underscores the very success of the 21st century; an important aspect that must not be ignored,” notes the United Nations, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

With the advent of modern technologies, the education sector in the SADC region is confronted with many problems such as inadequate infrastructure, funding, a huge shortage of competent teachers throughout the region; and these challenges hinder proper implementation of ICT programmes in education institutions.

In Zimbabwe, for instance, basic ICT infrastructures are grossly inadequate in most public schools. This problem is also rampant in some regional countries as they are facing the same challenges. Because of these problems, digital revolution is required in the region if the community is to transform its economy.

“This digital revolution should be adopted by all stakeholders in the region so as to effectively take the education system out of the woods,” says Mukhtar Muhammed, a public affairs analyst, adding that “governments must restructure their educational practices through utilising the potential of modern technologies.”

As the SADC leaders gather for the Heads of State and Government Summit being hosted by Zimbabwe this month, they must take into consideration means and ways of how the region can embrace ICTs to improve education in the region, close the digital divide and transform the economies of countries within SADC.

Without doubt, modern technologies will improve quality of learning by making extended knowledge resources of the Internet accessible to learners.

President Mugabe recently said one sure way of embracing the digital revolution is providing local communities tools for mastering educational transformation through the establishment of community information centres, as they are effective in keeping rural areas in touch with development in ICTs

“One major problem facing rural communities in the region is the limited access to relevant and current information about health, education, economy, transport, agriculture and market access. Without information, the rural communities are hampered from fully participating in national development.

“The overall aim in the establishment of these community information centres is to achieve equity of access to information and thereby bridge the digital divide between rural and urban communities,” notes President Mugabe.

Community information centres must also promote e-learning in line with SADC’s development objectives.

More so, education institutions must increase the uptake of students in ICT-related subjects, and ICT appreciation courses should be continuously conducted so as to increase the ICT literacy levels within communities.

Teacher training colleges and universities must also plan, develop and implement proper training to support educational transformation among teachers.

It is also important that SADC countries be committed to ensuring that every community is connected to the digital world to make sure that every citizen has full access to information.

As leaders recognise the significance of ICTs in regional development, they need to push for a coherent regional policy and strategy on ICT to promote sustainable economic development within the region. The policy should be in sync with national policies and strategies.

What is also needed is for SADC leaders to come up with innovative solutions to overcome the challenges affecting education in the region.

This means political will is greatly needed from leaders to acquire appropriate technologies and help education institutions to deliver and change the fortunes of the region.

To effectively revolutionise education, leaders must thrive to develop a competent skills base, and they can only do this by embarking on a school computerisation exercise.

Considering the importance of ICTs to effective learning, the computer sets provided to the selected schools should be accompanied with unlimited internet access.

For the SADC region to be globally competitive, countries must embrace modern technologies, utilise them to improve education and ensure that every citizen in member states has full access to information.