Ajoa Yeboah-Afari: A May Day placard I would have liked to see
I doubt that any of the placards at today’s May Day parades in Ghana will have a message about a disturbing trend: disadvantage by digital divide.
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But there should have been one, because issues highlighted on Workers Day reflect general concerns. One of them is that our society seems to be separating more markedly into those empowered by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and those left out and thus vulnerable.
Experts define ‘digital divide’ as the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different socio-economic levels, with regard both to their opportunities to access ICTs and to their use of the Internet for a wide variety of activities.
ICT includes any communication device, such as radio, television, cellular phones and computers, although the focus tends to be on computer-literacy.
Of course ICT is magical and has made life easier for users and we wonder how we managed before. Unfortunately, in this country, a developing tendency, expecting that every job-seeker, or applicant or enquirer has Internet skills and access, is very unfortunate and worrying.
It seems to be linked to a craze to be viewed as a modern organisation, one that is on the Internet or ‘on line’. And it must be frustrating to many applicants when organisations don’t allow for alternative means of contact.
For, this ‘online fever’ that has entrapped employers, educational institutions and political appointees demonstrates a disregard of the realities in the society. Even in Accra and the other cities, not all people have electricity all the time, or access to the Internet, or have ICT expertise – and this last group includes young people, too, as well as even media staff.
To illustrate, there are many people who use cell or mobile phones but whose knowledge of the device is basic, and ends at receiving and dialling calls, despite the numerous other functions on their phones.
Even to check one’s examination results, or apply to further one’s education, with some institutions the vogue is that it has to be done exclusively online. Is this fair? Clearly, it is another dimension of the rich-poor gap and do we need this?
Some heads, politicians and people in authority give the impression that everybody needing information or applying for a job or for admission has ICT-proficiency, or ready access to the Internet, when obviously that is very far from the reality.
Obviously, in the case of those of us who are newspaper columnists or contributors who provide our email address with our articles, it is done as additional information because the paper’s contact details are published in every issue.
Recently, as reported by the online Ghana Business News and other media, Foreign Minister, Hannah Tetteh, resorted to tweeting (posting short messages on one’s social media site) about the xenophobic attacks in South Africa.
I hope that in addition to her tweet, Ms Tetteh also issued a statement in the traditional way, by paper or hard copy, made available to the media. The assumption that everyone should access an official’s social media site for official information is ill-advised, to say the least.
This may be a practice of office holders in other countries, notably the developed countries, but should that be enough reason for us to copy it, given our situation?
There is no problem with officials putting public information on their personal sites, provided those messages are also made available simultaneously, the traditional way, because such information is for everybody not just those who have access to, or make a habit of checking social media sites.
Obviously the national aspiration is to bridge the huge gap between those who have no clue about ICT and those who eat, drink and sleep it, so maybe there will be a time when all of us will be computer experts, ‘whizz-kids’. But are we there yet?
What is to happen to the large numbers of people, especially rural youth, or youth in deprived communities, who through no fault of theirs have no ICT skills or access?
Last week a district political leader poignantly underscored this national problem as the Daily Guide reported in its issue of April 23:
“At a durbar (in) the Anum Traditional Area, the District Chief Executive for Asuogyaman, Mr Thomas Ampem Nyarko, noted that the performance of the Anglican A & B Schools at the Basic Education Examination in the last six years had been very poor, especially in the area of ICT.
“But he was quick to add that (the students) could not be blamed for their poor performance in ICT because even though they had never set their eyes on a computer, they were still required to write the same examination with their counterparts in the urban areas who were familiar with (computers).”
The occasion was the commissioning of a library and computer laboratory provided for Anglican schools in Anum, Eastern Region, by Connecting Kids Education Foundation, a non-governmental organisation.
It ought to be mandatory for employers, organisations and educational institutions to make available to applicants both Internet and old-fashioned contact information until such a time that the vast majority of Ghanaians can be said to have ICT-proficiency.
So far, few areas seem to have escaped the online fever, although the Judiciary and funeral announcements still remain ‘old school’. Court notices in the papers still go the traditional way.
Also, I’m yet to see a funeral announcement directing people to a website for further information, or asking mourners to send an email if they intend to be at the funeral. But the way the online fever is spreading, who knows, that day may not be too far off.
At least that was what I thought when last Sunday I wrote the above paragraph in my first draft of this article. However, the very next day, a one-year remembrance advertisement that I saw in the Daily Graphic, of April 27, provided proof of “that day” having arrived. Its last line was a website address!
Nevertheless, the convenience of ICT should not mean the exclusion of those who don’t have the skills or the access. More needs to be done to bridge the divide and, meanwhile, the old methods should still apply, be used side by side.
Yes, digital divide placards should have featured at the May Day parades as one of the current problems to be highlighted and tackled.