Peter Espeut | Widening of the digital divide

ON MARCH 10, 2020, the Jamaican Government announced its first confirmed case of COVID-19, and the following day, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak to be a global pandemic. On March 13, Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared Jamaica a disaster area and announced the closure of all institutions for two weeks. At the same time, The University of the West Indies (UWI) announced that all its classes would be suspended for one month.

Exactly one month later – Tuesday, April 14, 2020 – classes resumed at the UWI, but not face to face; it is still too dangerous for students and teachers to congregate in a classroom space. Teaching is taking place over the Internet using a variety of software, including Zoom and Moodle and Blackboard Collaborate.

CLASSES VIA ZOOM

Life has to go on despite the pandemic, and as distant as it may seem, there will be life after COVID-19; our people have to continue their education.

I have been using Zoom. Teachers and students can see each other using the cameras on their computers, and they can hear one another using their microphones/speakers. Lecturers – including myself – can teach from home, and students can take the lectures at home; the lecturers can deliver their presentations on screen as if they were standing in the classroom with a blackboard and chalk, or using PowerPoint.

The software allows students to ask questions as if they were face to face with their teachers, and the lecturer can turn off their microphones if the class becomes too noisy. Because everyone takes their classes at home, nightly curfews and lockdowns have not stopped us.

How the world has changed in one short month!

Zoom is a powerful software. My classes are small – about a dozen people – but over the last few weeks I have attended UWI staff meetings with over 130 people. One of my staff attended a global meeting last week with more than 500 people – the world has indeed changed!

I know that some Kingston high schools had classes before Easter, using Zoom and Moodle. They even had morning assembly, with each student in the comfort of their home. I am sure that some high schools will resume classes shortly after the Easter break, and their students will take their CXCs and CAPE subjects and do well.

But I am also sure that some high schools without this technology will not resume classes for now, and, therefore, some Jamaican students will be left behind. It is at a time like this that the digital divide will widen the class divisions in our already highly unequal society.

Even if the school has access to the technology, which links teachers to students, the home situation of many students will prevent them from continuing their education right now. Many, for financial reasons, have no computer and/or no Internet access; the digital divide will exacerbate class divisions.

And many parents/grandparents are not in an educational position to homeschool their children and/or grandchildren.

INTERNET ACCESS

Many who do have computers live in deep rural areas, where Internet access does not exist. The rural-urban divide with its inequality in terms of infrastructure, will make already-existing class divisions even wider.

In the post-COVID-19 world – whenever that materialises – everyone will need high-speed Internet to go to school, to go to work, and to do business. Already, Vision 2030 has been superseded by the realities of 2020.

The Government must quickly take steps to help Jamaicans to bridge the digital divide. The Tablets-in-School Programme must be expanded to make one available to every student, and the Universal Service Fund must, in reality, make high-speed Internet truly universal – or at least islandwide.

We know that there will be much economic fallout from this COVID-19 pandemic, hopefully only short-term; but in the post-COVID-19 world, the digital divide in Jamaica’s education system could result in deep social fallout in the medium to long term.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and sustainable development scientist and is dean of studies at St Michael’s Theological College, an affiliate of the UWI. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.