The internet and education in the developing world - hopes and reality

Srinivasan Ramani

doi:10.1186/s40561-015-0015-x

Abstract

Information and communication technologies have made a major impact on education. This raises hopes in countries like India which are undergoing rapid growth in their educational efforts. Will Information and Communication Technologies create a revolution in the education sector? What can we expect in the way of impact due to the spread of access to the Internet? Will Internet access over the mobile phone make rapid advances possible in rural areas? What evidence is available to judge popular claims and predictions regarding dramatic growth of Internet usage as a result of the widespread use of cell phones? Can we identify the impeding factors that limit progress in using technology for education at middle schools, secondary schools and higher secondary schools? The paper addresses these questions, focusing mainly on Indian data and surveys progress in the spread of access to the Internet, including access using cell phones. It presents information on expenditure levels to offer insight into relevant socio-economic factors. It discusses the problem of language and the nature of content available over the World Wide Web. The whole effort reported in this paper is to get a realistic view of the current and potential impact of the Internet and Communication Technologies on education in India. Evangelists of technology have a way of creating unsustainable hopes by ignoring social and economic reality, and therefore a critical examination of available information is necessary. The paper concludes by discussing technologies and initiatives worth considering for ameliorating the situation mentioned above.

Highlights

Every major development in technology triggers hopes in developing countries in regard to its potential impact on education
Lower cost Internet access devices, such as tablets, phablets, and smart phones have addressed the problem of device affordability to a significant extent
The widespread use of cell phones opens up the possibility that many or most of them could be used as windows to the world of information and knowledge over the Internet

Summary

Introduction

Every major development in technology triggers hopes in developing countries in regard to its potential impact on education. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, TRAI (2013) gives figures as of March 31, 2013 as follows: Total number of Internet subscribers: 165 Million. Internet subscribers excluding those who access the Internet using wireless devices: 22 Million. India has not seen any major use of smart phones in mainline school education One reason for this might be the cost barrier that frightens the bulk of Indian students away from using cell phone access to the Web. Kumar (2011) refers to the fact that one could pay a small amount to get pre-paid web access. Only 19.7 million out of 1222 million Indians read English newspapers

Results and discussion

48 Million

Conclusions