OVERVIEW

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” - The late President Nelson Mandela.

The right to education is a basic human right recognised in article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and is reaffirmed in numerous other international treaties including, but not limited to, the UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education, the International Covenant on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Within Africa, the right to education is recognised in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. Within South Africa, the right to education is enshrined in section 29 of the South African Constitution.

This article will focus on the right to education and digital inclusion within South Africa specifically. However, the content of this article can more generally extend to and apply to the African continent as well. The article will address the following key aspects: (1) the nature of the current problem pertaining to digital inclusion (or exclusion) in the educational context; (2) the main causes of the problem; (3) the responsibility for solving the problem; and (4) potential solutions to the problem.

Since the advent of COVID-19 in 2020, learners in primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions have been forced to adapt to online (digital) learning as part of their training and teaching. A study conducted by the World Bank in 2019 indicates that 29% of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa used the internet. According to Internet World Stats, roughly 39% of Africa’s entire population had access to the internet as of March 2020. It is evident that this low percentage of internet users makes online learning a rather difficult task for the majority of the population. In South Africa specifically, the majority of households in developing areas do not have access to the internet and do not own a digital or electronic device such as a laptop or computer. The lack or absence of access to the internet in a digital world has a severe impact on childhood development and presents a major obstacle to the fulfilment of the right to education enshrined in various international treaties and the South African Constitution.

During COVID-19, the majority of schools in developing areas in South Africa were not geared to address the challenges presented by a pandemic. Some learners simply did not have access to the internet at their homes to enable them to do online learning. It is common cause that without measures in place to advance digital inclusion and afford every person the right to education (whether online or in person), vicious cycles of poverty are likely to remain intact.

WHO IS TO BLAME?

The development need that arises is how to connect the right to education and promote digital inclusion in Africa especially where there is a great digital divide. In the South African context, the right to education is not a tangible priority for the government and there seems to be no meaningful or adequate implementation of policies or laws in order to ensure that: (1) all learners have access to education and access to the internet to conduct online learning; (2) the government attends to timeous and adequate service delivery of textbooks and other resources necessary for learning; and (3) national budgets reserved for education are actually allocated to schools. The root causes of this development need include poor governance, corruption, a lack of leadership, an abuse of public or state power, and an apparent uninterest and lack of commitment in respect of the right to education. Poverty also plays a key role in these circumstances, not only because South Africa is a developing country in constant need of resources and funding, but also because a large percentage of the population lives in dire poverty, are unemployed, and simply do not survive on social grants. In the third quarter of 2021, South Africa’s official unemployment rate was 34.9% making it the highest unemployment rate on a global list of 82 countries monitored by Bloomberg.

In a sense, the government is not the only entity that is to blame. Everyone is to blame in relation to digital inclusion, including the private sector, internet service providers, lobby groups, and citizens. There is not enough advocacy surrounding digital inclusion and very little effort is made to address, prioritise, or resolve it.

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

Education personified is a liberator. It can liberate anyone from a painful past filled with hardships. It can transform a person’s whole life and story. If learners do not have access to education and, specifically, access to the internet which allows for online teaching and training, it will adversely affect childhood development, increase the unemployment rate, expand the gender wage gap, and lead to extreme poverty.

In South Africa, the government is the duty-bearer in respect of human rights and is responsible to protect and promote the realisation of all human rights, including the right to education. The fact that the government has failed and continues miserably to fail to protect and advance the right to basic education, requires private sector intervention. The solution to this problem is not an easy one. Lobby groups, policy makers, politicians, and human rights organisations should motivate and advocate the need for recognising digital inclusivity as a human right to ensure that all people have access to the internet. The digital divide is difficult to eradicate but should be made a national priority.

One solution would be for private sector internet service providers to provide internet access to all households and schools in developing areas at a reduced rate, funded by the government. The government should thus prioritise and allocate funding to this annually and implement it in national budgets. Digital access, however, is like building a road: it is expensive. A solution requires people to be advocates and to assemble teams of powerful forces and public-private partnerships, where digital access is the greatest mandate. Advocacy and pressure on the government are the two most important elements to address this problem. Internet access should be part of the services rolled out to citizens by the government.

The South African government could possibly partner with private sector role players such as large companies and law firms in order for the private sector to, as part of their pro bono or corporate social responsibility initiatives, assist schools in developing areas with funding, monetary donations, or donations of digital or electronic devices.

By partnering with the private sector, the government can create opportunities for qualifying entities to come up with a creative, innovative, and low-cost solution in order to ensure that every person has access to the internet. Funding should also be made available to entrepreneurs to conduct studies and devise a solution to end the digital divide.

If South Africa, and the African continent, can work towards the realisation of the right to education coupled with the right to access to internet or digital inclusion, the latter not being formally recognised as a basic human right, poverty will be reduced, employment opportunities will increase, the gender wage gap will be decreased, and the current unemployment rate will decrease significantly.

Tanya Calitz is a practising lawyer and human rights activist in South Africa. She holds a certificate in freedom of expression from the University of Oxford, an LLM degree with merit from the University of Edinburgh, and an LLB degree with distinction from the University of the Free State.