M.Ed. / At present, some six million South Africans are illiterate, and around two million unemployed adults have inadequate basic schooling (National Education Coordination Committee, 1993:30). This means that they are unable to take advantage of further training or skilled employment prospects. The consequences of illiteracy amongst adults are still reflected through the economy in the form of low productivity, poor quality of life of low-income households and communities, and in political and social instability. Similar findings have been recorded in other countries. For example the Australian Government Gazette (2000:31) states that there were over 23 million adults between the ages of 16 and 65, over 3 million of whom had not had access to schooling. Furthermore, nearly 10 million had not completed Grade 9, and over 10 million had not completed Grade 12. Vella (1994:1) concurs that the introduction of Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) is a solution to the problem. Adult Education is expected to bring about change in adult learners, with goals ranging from changing behaviour to increasing knowledge, skills and attitudes. One of the focuses of ABET is educational technology, with specific focus on the computer. Carter (1993) states that educational technology, in particular the computer, is widespread to such an extent that it is viewed as an indispensable tool in the daily lives of people. It is used in homes, offices, shops, banks and hospitals. In addition, the most important indicator of the population’s ability to use information technology is to apply computer basics. Although no scientific survey of computer literacy in Africa has been performed to date, rough estimates do exist. Hodge & Miller(1997) quote the World Competitiveness Report (1993) which placed South Africa’s computer literacy rate on a par with Brazil, just below `India and well behind countries like Singapore and Japan (see Chapter 2, table 2.1). Over a decade later, an estimate of computer literacy in South Africa (Hodge & Miller, 1994:[online]) based on the education, employment and demographic profile of the population, shows the levels of computer literacy to be 3.2 million people, or 7.7% of the population. In addition, these figures are based on criteria that computer literacy is determined in the workplace, the level of education determining the type of job one gets and how much prior experience with computers one has. Factors such as age will influence the level of computer literacy. Applying this methodology to each race group, Hodge and Miller, 1997 [online]) find computer literacy rates of 21.1% for Asians, the lowest percentage 5.6% for Blacks and 7,1% for Coloureds. As these statistics indicate, the lowest percentage are Blacks, which indicates that this group is in most need of ABET (Hodge & Miller, 1997: [online]). As the researcher found that the low computer skill figures revealed that the groups most in need of computer literacy are Blacks, she, therefore, was motivated to examine the reasons behind these low figures. 1.2 / Dr. G.V. Lautenbach
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:13105 |
| Date | 27 October 2008 |
| Creators | Nevondo, Ntsengiseni Lizah |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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