“Education is the key that unlocks the golden door to freedom”
George Washington Carver
This quote comes from a first black student at Iowa State University who was born into slavery, but became a well known American agricultural scientist and inventor. He got his chance to access education, which opened the door to his future. However, not everyone is so lucky. In my last blog posts SDG 4 – How to make education a right, not a privilege? and SDGs and the Power of Education I highlighted the difficulties in working to achieve SDG 4 using the example of educating women and girls in Afghanistan. This post will be a continuation of research on ICT techniques in the field of education on the example of Afghanistan with special focus on the target 4.6 in SDG 4 – Quality Education.
Education Crisis
A crisis in the field of education has been experienced by individuals all over the world in recent years. This also affected the population of Afghanistan, first due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then due to the governmental shift in September 2021, through which girls and women above the age of 12 were deprived of the right to education. However, despite the difficulties in educating Afghan girls, many non-profit organizations and individuals have stepped up to provide them with access to education through various ICT opportunities. One of them is Pashtana Dorani, Executive Director of LEARN AFGHANISTAN, whose example I described in my last post. Online schools are one of the easiest solutions to access education in Afghanistan, because any form of education for girls must take place in secret.
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Children being taught in a secret homeschool Source: Vice News
ICT for Development of Education
Technology is a great tool for development nowadays. Richard Heeks [1] defines ICT4D practices as “the application of any entity that processes or communicates digital data in order
to deliver some part of the international development agenda in a developing country”(p. 10). Therefore, it is extremely important to use technology in development practices in developing countries, because they are often an easier solution than traditional methods. The example of Afghanistan itself shows that creating educational platforms both online and offline can be an appropriate way (sometimes even safer) to educate girls who must hide in order to benefit from education. Heeks[1] points to 5 generic process benefits that the use of ICT in development activities can bring. (p.13) It can be seen that they can also be used in the field of education.
- 1) Cheaper: ICTs can make a process cheaper than it was before – Although providing students with electronic devices may seem expensive, purchasing learning materials that change at subsequent stages of education may involve incurring similar costs. However, it should be taken into account that the devices also provide access to free sources. It is also important that one device can be used by more than one student.
- 2) More: ICTs can increase the number of process outputs – Digital learning can bring more outputs thanks to the opportunity to acquire additional skills, such as technological ones, while learning school subjects. It also allows complex repetitions of the learned content, and thus there is a greater probability of learning the material than during a single lesson at school. The possibility of using materials, which are available offline, increases the opportunity of higher acquisition and knowledge about content, sources and ICT’s tools.
- 3) Quicker: ICTs can reduce the time required for a process – The use of various teaching techniques appropriate for the student’s level, as well as providing access to more sources, can speed up the entire learning process.
- 4) Better: ICTs can make process outputs of higher quality – The diversity of sources and the possibility of access to professional learning materials via the Internet may provide higher quality than relying on less developed sources in developing countries where science is not at such an advanced level yet.
5) New: ICTs can help create a new process or new outputs – Technological possibilities in digital learning can provide many points of view on one issue, which allows to work on it in various processes and therefore can provide more outputs than standard solutions, which are usually limited.
eLearning in Developing Countries Source: eLearning Industry
Therefore, it seems that information and communication technologies used to facilitate access to education have a chance not only to improve the entire educational process, but also to provide opportunities that traditional learning does not offer. Thanks to this, more learning outputs could be obtained, access to education for more people could be provided, and the materials contained in electronic devices can be used many times and do not require financing each time.
Gender inequality in ICT literacy in Afghanistan
However, the solution using ICT for educational purposes is not as easy as it may seem. In order for electronic devices to serve educational purposes, one must first learn how to use them, and this seems to be a difficulty in Afghanistan. According to UNESCO data for 2022 the literacy rate was only 37.3% (with a predominance of men 52.1% and 22.6% for women). Amy O’Donnell and Caroline Sweetman[2] explain the reasoning behind these numbers in their article, noting that they clearly stem from gender inequality. Men trying to control women do not want them to use ICTs and prefer exercising transformative agency at household level. (p.220) It should also be noted that men take control over women and girls at the moment of marriage, and this is another issue that Afghanistan is struggling with, where, according to data, 28% of girls get married before they turn 18, and 4% before they turn 15 – that is, at the age when they should have obvious access to education. This gender inequality means that it is no longer just a matter of education but of the position of women in society. As Amy O’Donnell and Caroline Sweetman[2] noted, “To focus only on formal education is to miss the enormous and positive role ICTs can play in increasing the agency and power of young women, in a range of ways.” (p.220) ICT literacy can give women not only access to various forms of education but also to a range of other skills.
“If a woman wants to be independent, she first needs education, secondly skills, and then she needs to earn money. Only when a woman earns her own money does she have rights.”
Roya Mahboob — a pioneering social entrepreneur from Herat, Afghanistan
Afghan women protesting Source: Independent
Challenges of ICT for Education
When it comes to the issue of online (or offline) education, the challenges brought by such form, should be analyzed. First of all, it is necessary to consider what the teaching materials will be and what sources they will come from. Tim Unwin [3] notes that The mission of Open Educational Resources and Content is to provide access to learning sources for free, however, authors and creators should be paid for what they have created. (p.54) So how are citizens of poorer countries supposed to pay for them? This is an issue that shows that the materials and therefore access to education are no longer “for everyone”.
Secondly, the vast majority of e-Learning materials come from the global north where they are developed. This means that the potential of local teachers is underestimated. This also brings up the third issue I raised in my previous post – since the materials come from the global north, they are created in English, not indigenous languages. The language barrier does not allow students to fully use the materials which probably will only be available to those who speak English. The issue of access to Open Educational Resources and Content and the format of the materials also remains a challenge. If the materials are only available online without the possibility of using them again offline, this will marginalize those for whom access to the Internet is limited. (p.56) So how can we make forms of education using ICTs work best and be available to more citizens in developing countries? What local initiatives should be supported?
Open educational resources. Source: Giulia Forsythe on Flickr
Local activists as key players in development
As I mentioned earlier, the key in activities for the development of education is to support local initiatives because they mainly play a significant role directly on site. In Afghanistan, many non-profit organizations were established working to develop education and strengthen the position of women in society under the rule of the Taliban. In my recent posts, I mentioned initiatives such as School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA) and Learn Afghan School. One of the famous initiatives is also Sabar Afghan Online School, which has created virtual classes for all levels of learning from 1st to 12th grade. The school is based on pre-recorded recordings of lessons of individual school subjects for each class separately. The key fact is that lessons are conducted in indigenous languages (Pashto and Dari) so students do not have a language barrier. The challenge that may be encountered is the fact that the lessons are available on YouTube, which requires constant internet access. However, the school also provides students with free learning materials to download. As highlighted during the United Nations’ conference on International Day of Education 2023 local support is crucial. The above-mentioned initiatives require financing from world leaders if they are to be successful on a larger scale.
Sabar Afghan Online School Source: Sabar
Conclusion
There is no doubt that the role of ICTs nowadays is crucial in efforts leading to sustainable development and social change. All the more important is their role in education (SDG 4), which plays one of the most important roles in all SDGs. However, for it to be effective, funds must first be allocated to support local initiatives. It is necessary to use the potential of local teachers and to invest in their training so that they can fully serve the community. Apart from the issues of education itself, the problems go deeper to gender inequality. Therefore, we need a change that will strengthen the position of women in society, and thus give them the rights, among others, to education and learning about ICTs. After all, we need education to be a priority in global initiatives because it is the basis for creating a society that is moving towards change not only until the end of the 2030 agenda.
SDGs future Source: The Movement for Community-led Development
Reflections
The New Media, ICT and Development course was a completely new experience for me, different from other courses in this program as well as from my previous studies in Poland. Creating a blog on which our learning and research was to be based over the last few weeks was an experience that gave me a different perspective on the way of studying and my learning process.
First of all, I must admit that this is the first time I had the opportunity to create a blog. Nevertheless, I really liked this form of writing, especially since, in my opinion, it is more readable to the reader than a typical academic essay. Additionally, there is the possibility of posting/using the links to external websites thanks to which one can obtain more information, videos or images illustrating the described case contained in the posts.
Another advantage was the fact that we created the blog together with the group members. We chose the topic of the SDGs, which allowed us to work on one topic but from different perspectives. Our cooperation was not only based on planning when to publish a post – we shared thoughts and suggestions about our posts, which sometimes resulted in making minor corrections before publication or refining the details to make them more obvious to our recipients. At the end of blogging, we received feedback about our blog from another group, thanks to which we learned more about how recipients see our blog and obtained valuable tips on what we can improve.
It must be admitted that the blogging process required a lot of work. Regular posts and the involvement of all group members was often a challenge to finalize the content before the planned date so that content appears regularly on our blog. In my opinion, extending the blogging time for the entire semester would allow the creation of broader blog content as well as obtaining a larger number of recipients and interactions.
References
[1] Heeks, R. 2017: Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D). Abingdon: Routledge.
[2] O’Donnell, A. & Sweetman, C. 2018: Introduction: Gender, development and ICTs, Gender & Development, 26:2, 217-229.
[3] Unwin, T. 2017: Reclaiming Information & Communication Technologies for Development . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[4] Toke, N. 2023: The Role of ICT in Achieving the SDG Goal of Quality Education Retrieved from: https://diversity.social/the-role-of-ict-in-achieving-the-sdg-goal-of-quality-education/
[5] Adilson, P. 2017: eLearning In Developing Countries: Can Rich Countries Help? Retrieved from: https://elearningindustry.com/elearning-in-developing-countries
[6] Panke, S. 2023: Online Education as a Lifeline of Learning Opportunities for Afghan Girls and Women: An Interview with Sima Ahmadi Retrieved from: https://www.aace.org/review/online-education-as-a-lifeline-of-learning-opportunities-for-afghan-women-an-interview-with-sima-ahmadi/
[7]Vigliar, V. 2016: Afghanistan: Using technology to empower women Retrieved from: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2016/7/22/afghanistan-using-technology-to-empower-women
[8] UNESCO, 2023: Community-based Literacy and Complementary Learning Possibilities Retrieved from: https://www.unesco.org/en/node/85308
[9] UNESCO, 2023: Education in Afghanistan Retrieved from: https://www.unesco.org/en/node/85305?TSPD_101_R0=080713870fab20003cbdb45a1c8f5b6ef49ab0c619ae4f8553b5507213a2345f216c41b81c0e8cae0826a7d516143000d37f16aad56476b6e05f4ce2ea8d8bfd301b979651de913cb0fbe02f479c41dc8f554b6ce26046066fb4210ecafce1e6
[10] Huang, R. 2023: Inside Afghanistan’s Secret Schools for Girls Retrieved from: https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7znam/afghanistan-secret-schools-girls-taliban-education
[11] Jones, S. E. 2023: The potential of ICT based education in developing countries Retrieved from: https://www.computeraid.org/news/blog/potential-ict-based-education-developing-countries
[12] Ansari, O. 2021: Technology and training to support the digital empowerment of women in Afghanistan Retrieved from: https://www.itu.int/hub/2021/08/technology-and-training-to-support-the-digital-empowerment-of-women-in-afghanistan/