Aspectos éticos

The findings were covered extensively in chapter 2 which focused on the status of ICT usage in South African schools. This chapter also gave an overview of the Port Elizabeth district in terms of its schools and the usage of ICT in this area. Chapter 3 outlined the research methods used in this study and focused specifically on the specific questionnaires which were used as well as how the participating schools were selected.

Chapter 4 presented the results of the questionnaires from both teachers and learners. In short, the findings can be summarised as follows:

A larger percentage of teachers and learners in less privileged areas do not have opportunities to access ICT facilities in their environment as compared with their counterparts in more privileged areas. Teachers and learners in privileged area schools have satisfactory access to ICT facilities

majority of the learners, parents and teachers in less privileged areas are low-income earners who do not see ICT as an important basic need.

There is a major disparity between teachers and learners in a less privileged area and those in a privileged area in terms of ICT empowerment. Privileged teachers and learners are empowered to improve their own livelihood, while less privileged teachers and learners are disadvantaged by lack of access to ICT that provides critical development opportunities.

The less privileged areas also lack professionally trained ICT experts that can help whenever there is a problem involving technical operations. Larger percentages of teachers and learners in the privileged areas can afford to have personal computer and internet facilities both at school and home, but few teachers and learners have access to computers at home and these resources in the less privileged areas.

5.2.1 Factors that lead to the status of access to ICT services

The imbalances in learners’ access to ICT were described through the analysis of the data collected for this study. 91 % percent of less privileged learners live in townships and also attend township schools. Table 4.49 indicated that 76% of these learners from less privileged areas had no access to computers at home while nearly all (96 %) learners from privileged area have access to computers at home. These learners from the less privileged areas thus lag behind in terms of ICT skills and access to internet usage.

Not all the Port Elizabeth secondary schools were equally equipped with ICT facilities. 97% of learners from privilege areas acknowledged that they have access to computer and internet facilities at schools as compared with learners from less privileged areas as seen in Table 4.5. 63% of learners from privileged areas use a computer every day due to availability as compared with 19% of learners from less privileged areas.

Table 4.5 indicated that nearly all (100 %) of the less privileged teachers in the township had their school situated in a less privileged area and that 100 % of the privileged teachers also reported that their schools were situated in the city. It was revealed that 71% and 94% of teachers respectively from less privileged to privileged areas had access to computers at schools.

Teachers and learners in privileged areas affirmed that the ratio of shared computers in schools was significantly lower than when compare with less privileged areas (Table 4.12).

This status of access to ICT by both learners and teachers can be improved by making available a tailor-made loan which will allow the parents of learners and teachers to acquire computer facilities. Also, if government were to create a policy that will initiate and redress the digital divide in the educational sector, it could aid the existing situation. Scholarships could be provided to learners from less privileged area to school in the city to create equal opportunities and exposure to ICT facilities.

5.2.2 Establish which socio-economic factors that contribute to the status of access to ICT services in the specific area

The gaps in ICT usage of learners and teachers in the gap in usage can be based on many factors. The most important factor that continually widen the digital divide is socioeconomic problems. Many studies argue that, more skilful and advantaged students will always learn better than disadvantaged students. The gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students will probably remain the same or they might even narrow a little, but it is unlikely that the gaps will increase if the students have equal access to ICT use in schools.

The majority of privileged learners have computers at home while the majority of less privileged ones do not. Also, the results show that the majority of learners from the privileged area have more access to computers at school than less privileged learners. Learners from the privileged area learn computer skills outside of the classroom or have teachers that introduce them to computers and but most of the learners from the less privileged area do not. It was noticed from the information gathered that privileged learners have both dedicated teachers and dedicated laboratories for learning computers while these are absent from the less privileged area. Also, ICT is offered as a subject at privileged schools and is assessed yearly. The two groups in the survey demonstrated patterns of computer use both at home and school.

The scholars in less privileged areas who are from a lower socio-economic stratum, as measured by the level of their parental education, are less likely to have access to a computer in their home. 50% of learners from privileged areas use a computer daily, 39% a use it a few times a week, 10%

compared to less privileged learners where 14% reported daily use of a computer, 67% a few times a week, 7% use it less that a week and 12 % have never used computers either at home or school. Table 4.58 give an account of this. This survey revealed that the higher the level of education, the more the interest in having access to ICT facilities.

Access to computers and the acquisition of skills depends on the social background in which the learners and the teachers live, study, work and grow up. Learners and teachers from privileged areas have higher access to computers and internet facilities compared with those from less privileged areas. According to Table 4.7, there are no teachers in the privileged areas who reported that they had never used a computer; 6 % use them less than once a week; 17 % a few times a week and 78 % reported using a computer daily. Teachers from less privileged areas reported that 13% had never used computer; 20 % use it less than once a week; 24 % a few times a week and 24% daily. Therefore, a lower socio-economic status is associated with limited financial resources and a lack of basic infrastructure.

5.2.3 To determine the status of access to ICT services in specific areas within the larger Port Elizabeth area.

A high degree of accessibility can be termed digital socialisation. Pupils who have a computer and internet access at home generally have a fairly high level of computer skills compared with pupils who do not have these facilities at home.

Table 4.38 indicates that both less privileged and privileged schools had a quite number of computers available to pupils. The privileged and less privileged had a computer centre of some sort but the connectivity to the internet is far greater within less privileged area. In addition, in less privileged areas more learners share computers with others learners as compared with those from privileged area.

Young people learn their computer skills mainly by experimenting on their own, but if they run into problems, they will often ask their parent for help. More significant differences are apparent if we look at home accessibility to computers and learners having personal e-mail accounts. It was discovered that 100% of learners from privileged areas reported have an e-mail account while 45% from less privileged area had an e–mail account.

5.2.4 To determine whether the level of access differs between secondary schools and the homes of teachers and learners in the identified area.

Privileged areas enjoy the rapid development of industrialization and high concentration of technological advancement that increases their access level. The investigation and responses are summarized in Table 4.49 and Figure 4.49. The percentage of learners in less privileged areas who have access to computers at schools is very low: 16% compared with 97% in the privileged areas. This is as result of their geographic remoteness and a lack of basic amenities which are “musts” for access to ICT in any society.

As it was indicated in both Table 4.47 and Figure 4.47 respectively, large numbers of learners reside in less privileged areas that lack basic socio-economic amenities such as electricity. Virtually all the pupils in privileged areas reportedly having access to computer at home while 24 % of the pupils from the less-privileged areas have access at home.

Schools in less privileged areas within Port Elizabeth have little access to ICT. They lack the appropriate environment and the necessary security for storing ICT equipment. The high cost of telephone and electricity tariffs worsens the situation for the less privileged areas facing the challenges of accessing ICT. Less privileged areas often have a weaker economic base. With the above considerations, less privileged areas may not be able to afford similar levels of ICT accessibility compared to their privileged counterparts

The socio-economic background plays a major role in differentiating teachers and learners in less privileged areas from more privileged areas. Teachers and learners in less privileged areas are disadvantaged in accessing ICT both at home and at school due to a lack of infrastructure, finances and poor security compared with that of other teachers and learners in privileged areas.