Africa's Digital Literacy Push & Fake News Fight - Tabbing Takes 03
Increasing literacy and digital literacy levels in Africa will have benefits beyond Education as the continent combats fake news.
Tabbing takes is a weekly-ish roundup of the most interesting trends in Africa's digital economy, culture and tech.
The Impact of Digital Literacy & Edtech in Africa
There's a race to remove barriers to connectivity and increase economic opportunity in Africa - connect 800 million Africans to the internet. But there are things that are not making this easy. Like the digital divide among learners and the low literacy levels that mars the continent.
Millions of African children do not have books. Many African schools do not have a library. Just like most infrastructures on the continent, education is also broken. A lot of people on the continent cannot read and write. Yes, smartphones might be available in every nook and cranny on the continent, with internet penetration rising and the ongoing big push in closing the digital skill gap in Africa but you can only do so much when less than half of the continent cannot read or write.
You can link low literacy levels to poverty, unemployment, and crime so it’s no surprise that African countries have some of the highest illiteracy rates in the world. Compared to the United States where 99% of individuals ages 15 and over are literate, literacy levels in some African countries there's need to improve: 62% in Nigeria, 71% in Egypt, 76% in Uganda, 85% in Kenya, 19.10% in Niger and 95% in Equitorial guinea.
The continent digital divide is evident in the study which claims that 89% of learners in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to household computers. 82% lack internet access and at least 20 million live in areas not covered by a mobile network. As of 2019 in Africa, 105.4 million children at primary and secondary school age were out of school.
Yes, there is a digital divide in terms of access to technology especially for young learners but there's also the bigger issue- not enough Africans can read and write.
Adult literacy rates in Africa is around 66.8% compared to rates 90% around the world. If we were to give every African a laptop, a cell phone or a tablet, will they be able to use it without any friction? even as you consider the continent's energy problem?
Digital literacy and digital skills are a necessity if the continent is to benefit from, participate in, and contribute to the rapidly evolving digital economy.
We then need to ensure that both African learners and adults alike are able to use today's tech and future tech. They need to gain and be familiar with the technical skills required for hybrid learning (the use of both in-person teaching and online learning). And the most important skill of all is the ability to read and write well.
African Edtechs like Andela, Kidato, Eneza, Ubongo, Snapplify, Ulesson, Bina, M-Shule, eLimu, Gradely, Student Hub, Tuteria, Zedny, Kukua and ScholarX are rising up to the occasion. But they can only do so much as the African Edtech industry is still in its early stages.
More public and private spending need to be invested in Education in Africa. Joseph Nsengimana; Director for the Mastercard Foundation's African Centre; said it better than I could ever have:
" There is certainly room in Africa for improvements in efficiency and equity when it comes to spending public monies on education. Some of those improvements can come from more and stronger public-private partnerships that can support better outcomes, particularly in vocational training and in tertiary education where more R & D is needed. Noting, of course, that private sector investments in education should be seen as a supplement to and not as a replacement for public sector funding"
Around the world, education systems are investing in technology, Africa needs to do the same albeit geared towards raising literacy and digital literacy levels at the same time.
Digital literacy correlates with digital inclusion in the sense that people are able to use and access information and communication technologies, be able to do administrative procedures online via e-government services, make payments and financial services using technology. Digital literacy has become so fundamental to how we go about our daily lives.
With the future of education looking less school and classroom-centric and more centred on remote lifelong learning - anywhere at any time. Africa needs to deploy accessible and appropriate technology not just to enable more Africans to have the ability to read and write but the capacity to be equitable and efficient learners. which will undoubtedly yield benefits beyond education. There is also dire need to improve access to electricity on the continent if Africans are to maximise the gadgets that power the digital economy.
Fighting Fake News in Africa
From social media-driven health and 5G myths to sensationalized journalism, fake news is rife in Africa. However, we must note that fake news is a worldwide problem.
Fake news, disinformation and misinformation are frequently used interchangeably, but they mean slightly different things. Fake news is complete or partly false information, often appearing as news with an intention to mislead or confuse people. Both disinformation and misinformation contribute to fake news, but the primary difference between the two is intent. Disinformation is a made-up story with malicious intent to deceive, cause harm, and manipulate public perception. Misinformation, on the other hand, is the spread of misleading or false information inadvertently without the intent to deceive. A sender of misinformation may not know the information is inaccurate.
We live in a growing environment of public mistrust, especially with the media. David Hundeyin Cornflakes for Jihad story that links a Nigerian FMCG company to terrorism recently raised eyebrows regarding journalism processes on the continent. The truth is that the explosion of the number of sources of information makes deciphering what is factual, what is misinformation, and what is propaganda increasingly difficult.
11 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa were studied for laws and regulations relating to “false information”, between 2016 and 2020. The countries studied were Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda. The report found that in the 11 countries studied, the number of laws against “false information” almost doubled from 17 to 31 from 2016 to 2020. But the problem they found with these laws that African governments have passed is that these laws restrict freedom of speech rather than reduce the actual – or potential harm – that fake news causes.
it is increasingly obvious that punitive laws by governments won’t work and that a simple correction of a false claim is not enough in today’s world where false claims can easily go viral and methods of spreading misinformation are rapidly changing. We must put in more effort to address this trust deficit and the “fake news” crisis around the globe.
In Africa, we have Africa Check, which provides information and tools to improve the quality of public debate and the decision-making capacity of policymakers and citizens. Africa Check mission is to: reduce the circulation of false claims and improve access to evidence-based information, while also empowering the media and general society — to check the accuracy of claims themselves. Africa check is doing this by testing automated fact-checking tools in the continent and improving news literacy and fact-checking skills among the general populace.
Misinformation and disinformation strategies can easily disrupt internal political and social systems within African democracies by muddying the information waters. So it is important for African nations to understand that fake news is neither a local nor an isolated phenomenon. But a trans-national battle, a battle for freedom, and, as such, it is essential that stakeholders prepare and execute comprehensive responses.
A better approach will be improving access to accurate information and correction of false information by setting up independent bodies that can be watchdogs of the quality of official statistics on the continent and also ensure public access to that data. There's also a need to enable the growth of independent fact-checking organisations across the continent. It is also important to facilitate a combination of widespread critical thinking skills among the African population if the continent is to put up a strong defence against the spread of false information.
Fully addressing misinformation and fake news as a whole will require changes to the relationships between social media platforms, news agencies, journalists, governments, and individuals. Some of these changes will entail people becoming better critical thinkers to grow into enlightened consumers of news in this digital era.
Collaboration between media agencies that establishes a sort of gold standard, can play an active role in combating misinformation, too. There is also a question of the need to introduce critical theory to digital media to develop a new blueprint of citizen journalism and participatory democracy based on an intelligent open knowledge and information system
The media perhaps more so than other stakeholders have a role to play in curbing the deluge of fake news in Africa. This is because the media faces the risk of being infiltrated, manipulated and targeted by the perpetrators of fake news.
Kept Tabs
One in Ten Transactions in the World On Digital Payments Is Done by a Kenyan
French start-ups operating in Africa share their experiences
South African Cleaning Services Startup SweepSouth Expands To Nigeria, Others
E-commerce powers Africa’s rapidly expanding fashion sector
A New app allows tractor owners and farmers to connect in Kenya
Is the future of internet news, automatic audio articles?
Nigerian Vandease is building a marketplace that allows restaurants to buy directly from farms and food manufacturers.
Airtel's long game to become Africa's mobile commerce behemoth.
Francophone Africa’s first tech unicorn - Wave, is sparking excitement in a market overshadowed by the continent’s Anglophone giants.
KamPay has launched a blockchain-based financial platform that is at the same time a payment system, a wallet and a lottery in Africa.
Africa's open internet is at risk
Xlinks is planning on building the world’s longest power link from Morocco to supply 7 million British homes.
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