Online Learning during the South African Covid-19 Lockdown: University Students Left to Their Own Devices

Abstract

After the announcement of a national lockdown by the South African state in March 2020, university students and lecturers had to conduct learning activities online. In countries where reliable information and communications technologies exist, this transition was relatively smooth. Students were able to learn using internet-based online learning systems. This is not the case in South Africa. Based on in-depth interviews with some students and lecturers and the use of internet resources, this article demonstrates that the participation of students from poor and working-class households evinced many deficiencies. This is because South Africa’s information and communications technology infrastructure disadvantages poor and working-class households. The poor access to online learning that students from working-class and poor households experienced demonstrates that in South Africa the argument about the promise of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which must supposedly be embraced by everyone, is simply not tenable and is not supported by any evidence. Instead, many working-class and poor South Africans, as shown by facts presented in this article, have not even realised the assumed benefits of the Third Industrial Revolution, which comprises information and communications technologies. For the students who participated in this study, poor information and communications technology infrastructure and the challenges pertaining to access to laptops and computers made online learning during the lockdown very difficult.