The Ramification of D igital Divide

1. The Ramification of Digital Divide

2. Introduction The digital divide has especially far-reaching consequences when it comes to education. For children in low-income school districts, inadequate access to technology can hinder them from learning the tech skills that are crucial to success in today’s economy.

3. Issues Surrounding Access • Divide in infrastructure • Skills divide • Socio-economic divide • Consequences of the digital divide • Politics/Leader • Universal Access divide

4. Divide in infrastructure Since South Africa is a developing country there are areas that are continuously enhanced (improved) and some which lacks infrastructure. this creates a divide in digital access because of lack of facilities, because a lot of people depend on their cell phones as the only access to the internet Government can challenge this issue by providing libraries with computers that have access to the internet which is of use to any visitors at a low amount.

5. Skills Divide Accessibility is increase but not with the necessary training skills According to the ITU almost 20% of Africa’s population had access to the internet by the end of 2014, up from 10% in 2010.  It is far from full penetration and the challenge is to ensure that communities are given the skills they need to use ICT effectively. The government can be assisted by the collection of donation funds that will contribute in the purchasing of technological devices for schools located at low income areas.

6. Socio-economic Divide A set of ideas in the social science and political theory cantered on models of social stratification in which people are grouped into a set of hierchical social categories, the most common being is the upper, middle and lower classes. We all know that South Africa is still a developing country which means there are certain parts in the country that are facing a crisis when it comes to water, electricity and shelter. Schools that are settled in areas like the one I mentioned above lack in resource because some of them are unroofed and don’t have enough furniture to occupy their students therefore purchasing of the computers would be impossible making it a barrier to internet access. In my perspective the government can solve this by first addressing the social needs of areas under this situation.

7. Consequences of the digital divide In contrast to the poorer countries, richer countries benefit from more highly trained citizens which will lead to economic growth whereas poorer countries will not grow or develop, until they get access to technology. Countries that don’t have internet access are unable to carry out e-commerce and e-business putting their companies at a significant disadvantage with in the global market.

8. Leader/Politics As we are all aware that South Africa is facing some financial issues and money skimming accusations reflecting on the leader which could also be considered as a factor that plays part in digital access because of the misuse of economic development funds. It plays a huge part in Digital divide in terms of the leaders appointed to govern the area are corrupted or unexposed to the digital world and seeing it unnecessarily to make demand for their schools to be supplied with electronic devices e.g. tablets or computers that can be used to access different Textbooks and carry school related tasks through the internet.

9. Universal access The lower class is unable to purchase digital devices to enable them to have access on the internet