Emerging Skills for South African Rural Schools

Access to digital technology has bridged physical and economic barriers in some communities by allowing access to information which in turn has pushed the digital economy or Industry 4.0 (4IR) forward. However, in African rural communities’ access to digital technology is still distant. Research on rural schools indicates that the greatest portion of those living in rural areas access their internet through their mobile phones unlike in urban areas where internet is accessed through wireless and digital subscriber lines (DSL) in addition to mobile phones. As a result, these differences have created a digital divide between urban and rural areas as well as among provinces in South Africa.

Additionally, rural schools do not get good results. Poor performance can be attributed to the lack of human resources in the form of teachers, poor ICT infrastructure, physical resources and economic status of the learners.

Having identified all the mentioned problems, this why PAICTA is proposing a smart solution that will assist is improving most of the outlined challenges and providing technical 4IR skills for rural schools. PAICTA has identified five (5) rural schools in the Eastern Cape province to pilot this program. PAICTA is aware of the challenges facing rural South African Schools and guided by the principle of reaching the areas that no one has been to.