Abstract
This study assessed the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic in motivating digital transformation in the education sector in Zimbabwe. The study tracked the rate at which the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) tools were used by various institutions during the COVID-19 lockdown. Data were obtained from secondary sources. The findings are that, in Zimbabwe, during the lockdown, a variety of 4IR tools were unleashed from primary education to higher and tertiary education where educational activities switched to remote (online) learning. These observations reflect that Zimbabwe generally has some elements of excellence to drive the education sector into the 4IR, which has the potential to increase access. Access to education, particularly at a higher education level, has always been a challenge due to a limited number of spaces available. The pandemic has presented an opportunity to assess successes and failures of deployed technologies, costs associated with them, and scaling these technologies to improve access.
TopIntroduction
The spread of COVID-19, among several disruptions to normal life, necessitated more than 160 countries to effect temporary closure of schools. The World Bank (2020a) estimates that the closure of schools has left 1.6 billion children and youth out of school. Uscher-Pines, Schwartz, Ahmed, Zheteyeva, Meza, Baker, and Uzicanin, (2018) admit that during communicable disease outbreaks, community mitigation strategies such as social distancing can slow down virus transmission in schools and surrounding communities. On March 30th, 2020 the Government of Zimbabwe implemented a country-wide lockdown in response to the COVID-19 health crisis. On the 17th of May 2020, the lockdown was extended indefinitely. There was confusion on the way forward and Zimbabwe spent the greater part of 2020 under lockdown with schools and colleges closed. As a result, about 4.6 million learners, and 127,000 teachers in 9,625 schools were affected by the COVID-19 induced lockdown (Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education [MoPSE], 2020). This caused a halt to the learning process with need to move away from using the usual face-to-face pedagogical methodologies and adopting innovative methodologies feasible using digital technologies. Hence, this study assessed the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic in motivating digital transformation in the education sector in Zimbabwe.
Despite the different practices introduced to mitigate the transmission of the disease in schools, the ultimate method to promote social distancing resulted in prolonged school closures (Jackson, Mangtani, Hawker, Olowokure & Vynnycky, 2014). However, little attention was paid to the identification and feasibility of other sustainable interventions that could not impact on the loss of learning. There was concern that the widespread school closures would lead not only to loss of learning, but also loss of human capital and diminished economic opportunities in the long run (World Bank, 2020b). Due to the unpredictable length of the pandemic, most education institutions adopted emergency remote learning (ERL) via online learning platforms, to replace most, if not all, face-to-face theoretical and practical lessons (Moser, Wei, & Brenner, 2021; Shim & Lee, 2020; World Bank, 2020a). However, it is acknowledged that the transition to the use of online teaching methods has not been easy in many countries due to the challenge of digital resources to support the new technologically based learning methodologies (Hondonga, Chinengundu & Maphosa, 2021). According to UNESCO (2020), 89% of learners in sub-Saharan Africa did not have access to household computers, and 82% lacked internet access. Even traditional tools such as radio and television could not be accessed by many (Afrobarometer, 2020).
In this sense, this study tracked the rate at which the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) tools were used by various institutions in Zimbabwe during the COVID-19 lockdown to support teaching and learning continuity.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Zimbabwe: Is a landlocked located in Southern Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north and Mozambique to the east.
Health Crisis: Is a difficult situation or complex health system that affects humans in one or more geographic areas (mainly occurred in natural hazards), from a particular locality to encompass the entire planet.
Connectivity: The ability to link to and communicate with other computer systems, electronic devices, software, or the internet.
Digital Technologies: Are electronic tools systems, devices and resources that generate, store or process data. Well known examples include social media, online games, multimedia and mobile phones.
Remote Learning: provides an opportunity for learners and teachers to remain connected and engaged with the content while working from homes. Opportunities for remote learning are typically linked to emergency situations such as the COVID-19 health crisis, which pose a threat to learner safety ( Ray, 2020 ).
Online Learning: learning that takes place online and where technology enables all or part of the learning process and environment. This includes e-learning, receiving instruction via a platform such as Google classroom, accessing content via mobile devices or video conferencing.
Broadband: High speed internet access that is always on and faster than the traditional dial-up access.