The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is of the view that education is a central component of the post-2015 development agenda. Education benefits society in many ways, including through reducing poverty levels, improving health and fostering economic development, job creation and higher salaries, as well as improving governance.⁽²⁾ Considering the benefits, it is important that education is made more accessible than it currently is. While significant progress has been made in primary education enrolment in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in accordance with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), secondary and tertiary enrolment remains low. For example, as of 2012, only about 8% of tertiary school-aged youths and adults in SSA were enrolled in tertiary institutions, compared to the global average of 32%.⁽³⁾ However, technology may be the answer to the accessibility problems bedevilling higher education by making online and distance learning possible.⁽⁴⁾

Technological innovation is critical in achieving greater access to education through distance learning and digital methods via m-learning (mobile phone learning). Due to the proliferation of mobile phones in Africa and existing educational shortfall faced by many African countries – particularly in SSA – a variety of educational programmes that use mobile phones have been piloted, many of them successfully. Mobile applications have also extended beyond students to include the widely used method of linking teachers together via SMS (short message service) to create a support network that encourages professional development.⁽⁵⁾ As the MDGs conclude at the end of 2015 and Africa moves towards post-2015 development, improvements in mobile phone technology and exemplary pilot programmes in m-learning have the potential to benefit students enrolled in higher education. For example, by eliminating the need for a computer, improving teacher-student communication and support, and providing access to materials. Adult learners, too, will be able to benefit from mobile applications (apps) that help to improve literacy and preparation for the job market. However, while m-learning has the capability to impact self-motivated learners in higher education development and skills training, without the proper planning and adequate support necessary for widespread implementation, its potential may not be fully realised.

Opportunities for post-secondary and adult learners through mobile technology

The proliferation of mobile phones across Africa has led to increased communication, easier and more accessible banking and management of personal finance, improvements in health care and accessible entertainment, and now it promises to improve and change education for youths and adults who are looking to enter the job market. Research shows that in 2013 there were more than 770 million mobile phone subscriptions in Africa. By the end of 2015 this number is expected to increase to one billion subscriptions, and by 2018 it is forecast to reach 1.2 billion.⁽⁶⁾ The increase in phones using internet data services will also be a boon to m-learning: of subscriptions in 2013, only 12.5% were phones with mobile broadband, while by 2018, 66.8% of mobile phone subscriptions will include mobile broadband.⁽⁷⁾ The rising growth in smartphone use provides one of the biggest opportunities for m-learning as a future development tool. Though smartphone use is currently limited, the rollout of affordable smartphones that target developing markets – such as Huawei’s US$ 100 Android phone and the Nokia 215 for US$ 29 (with a 29 day battery life) –will help to increase access to broadband connectivity and make smartphones accessible for those previously priced out of the market.⁽⁸⁾ The public and private sectors would both be remiss if they did not harness these trends to provide new opportunities for higher educational development and job preparation.

One of the most promising applications of mobile phones in higher education is in connecting higher education institutions more effectively with distance learners. By communicating and sending course materials via mobile phones, students receive more frequent support from their educators and can pursue their education wherever and whenever they want. Mobile phones may also help to reduce the cost of education for distance students. For rural students, the costs incurred from daily transportation to and from school on top of books, tuition and other fees can be prohibitive. Distance learning via e-learning on the computer is one solution, but even that requires access to a computer and internet connection, which excludes many within the target market. It may also be unnecessary. In Nigeria, in 2011, less than 5% of the population had access to a personal computer and internet while more than 63% of the population had mobile phone access.⁽⁹⁾ At the beginning of January, Nigeria’s government announced that it aims to connect 50% of the population to mobile broadband by the end of 2015,⁽¹⁰⁾ suggesting that mobile phones will continue to be more widely used than computers for internet access (for South African figures, see graph below). Curricula and content designed for the mobile phone is able to leapfrog the necessity to own or access a computer and provides additional flexibility and cost reductions for the distance learner. Non-distance learners could also benefit from mobile phones through similar cost reductions and access to additional support from teachers, which could help to reduce high dropout rates.⁽¹¹⁾

Mobile phones are also being used to tackle high illiteracy rates and foster skills development for those who have left school. Numerous mobile phone initiatives designed to improve literacy in Africa have been developed by organisations such as UNESCO, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Pearson (an international company that provides educational materials and services), and others. In South Africa, the Yoza Cellphone Stories series have been extremely successful in providing content for readers as well as opportunities for readers to submit their own writing, all via their mobile phones.⁽¹²⁾ Other mobile phone initiatives target learners who have dropped out of school by creating platforms that foster skills training in fields like agriculture, business and healthcare. For skills training in agriculture, there are apps that provide users with information on crops, weather patterns and farming, as well as local market prices so that the user can adjust their production accordingly to avoid waste and spoilage.⁽¹³⁾ Maurice Nkusi of the Polytechnic of Namibia has developed a fully mobile curriculum for out-of-school learners interested in agriculture. His project provides practical, skills-based courses to help learners gain useful skills, not only in how to grow the actual crops but the requisite business skills necessary to sell them in markets. The curriculum allows students to use mobile phones to do exams, assignments, participate in discussions, and access course content all on a flexible timetable.⁽¹⁴⁾ In addition to Nkusi’s mobile curriculum, other apps such as Gidimo, EduMe and X-kit provide a wide range of educational materials for language learning, exam preparation, tutoring and content to aid in preparation for the job market, such as tips for handling job interviews.⁽¹⁵⁾ These are just a few examples that prove that the size of potential markets for m-learning that cater for adult and out-of-school learners should not be discounted when evaluating the feasibility of m-learning.

Potential limitations and barriers to m-learning

The benefits that would accrue from m-learning are clearly substantial. However, unless the necessary infrastructure and investment is put in place, these benefits will be severely limited. Thus far, m-learning has yet to be tried on a national scale; its only available track record comes from being implemented in small pilot-programmes. Of the numerous challenges m-learning faces, the current lack of access to broadband connectivity and smartphones is a significant obstacle. Though small-scale m-learning programmes have used SMS and basic internet platforms successfully, m-learning materials, resources and curricula will remain limited without the ability to use other formats available for smartphones such as PDFs, Word or Excel documents, and interactive applications for taking exams, browsing course content and completing assignments.

One of the most formidable obstacles to the successful implementation of m-learning on a large scale is diversity of languages. Even with better access to mobile phones, there is a general lack of materials that cater to Africa’s multilingual audience. Though mobile apps and SMS programmes have the potential to reach out-of-school learners (youths and adults alike), without supplementary learning resources and materials available in local languages it is unlikely that m-learning will be widely effective. Compounding this issue is m-learning’s reliance on users who have literacy skills. Without m-learning apps that have speech functions alongside written material and without addressing literacy education in tandem with m-learning, those who are non-literate or semi-literate will be excluded from the potential of m-learning.

Another substantial challenge for m-learning is whether it can be effectively implemented in less developed African countries, which tend to be in greatest need of bolstering their education systems. So far, m-learning programmes have largely been created in countries with well-established data networks and technological support like Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, though network coverage in these countries can still have a significant drop-off in rural areas. For m-learning to be a tool in post-2015 development, improvements in telecommunications infrastructure capable of providing equal network coverage across all regions will be necessary to bridge the rural-urban divide in access to education. Furthermore, without rural areas having equal access to the network coverage, data costs will remain prohibitive and render the adoption of newer handsets expensive and unappealing for rural users.⁽¹⁶⁾ Unequal distribution of mobile networks and technology will greatly undermine the impact of m-learning on education.

Perhaps the greatest impediment to m-learning is the lack of interest on the part of governments and in educational policies. Though e-learning on the computer has been supported by ministries of education in countries like Kenya and Nigeria, platforms for learning through mobile phones have received little attention and thus have had little to no support. This lack of awareness is partly due to the continued small-scale nature of m-learning in educational settings.⁽¹⁷⁾ Owing to a lack of government and policy support, it is unlikely that m-learning will be implemented on a large-scale.

Moving forward: The reality of successfully implementing m-learning in post-2015 development

Greater implementation of m-learning could be achieved through the development of educational mobile apps that target learners in local languages as well as platforms that are accessible for the non- or semi-literate learner. This would not only reach students in higher education institutions, but also those outside of school, including adult learners.⁽¹⁸⁾ Implementation could also be improved by continuing to develop systems of mobile learning for the non-smartphone. Until the number of smartphone owners increases significantly, m-learning must continue to be accessible on non-smartphones in order to be widely accessible, which in turn limits the type of materials that can be offered. In the meantime, SMS services that target non-smartphones must be expanded on and continued in order to bridge the gap between non-smartphone users and smartphone users to ensure that purchasing power does not create a stratified learning experience for users. Greater government support of m-learning and investment in mobile networks that support mobile broadband internet is also necessary to vindicate the potential of m-learning.

Mobile phone learning has caught the attention of major players, including UNESCO, as one possible answer to post-2015 development goals. Small-scale programmes have been largely successful and provide examples for the effect that mobile phones could have on education development, especially through the reduction of costs, improvements in communication and support, increased access to materials, and skills-based and literacy-based mobile curricula. However, despite the benefits witnessed in small-scale implementation, there are significant obstacles for m-learning to surmount, making it a tantalising prospect for Africa’s future, but not one that will have significant impact on education in the short term.

Written by Emma Hornsby ⁽¹⁾

Notes:

(1) By Emma Hornsby. Contact Emma through Consultancy Africa Intelligence’s South African office ( officesa@consultancyafrica.com). This paper was developed with the assistance of Sizo Nkala. Edited by Liezl Stretton. Web Publications Manager: Claire Furphy.
(2) ‘UNESCO position paper on education post-2015’, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, February 2014, http://en.unesco.org.
(3) ‘School enrollment, tertiary (% Gross)’, World Bank, http://data.worldbank.org.
(4) ‘UNESCO position paper on education post-2015’, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, February 2014, http://en.unesco.org.
(5) Parr, C., ‘Africa’s mobile phone e-learning transformation’, Times Higher Education, 12 September 2013, http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk.
(6) ‘Africa Telecoms Outlook 2014: Maximizing digital service opportunities’, Informa Telecoms & Media, 2013, http://files.informatandm.com.
(7) Ibid.
(8) Jidenma, N., ‘Huawei’s $100 Android phone emerges as Kenya’s best seller’, The Next Web, 24 June 2011, http://thenextweb.com; Smith, A., ‘Meet the world’s cheapest smartphone’, CNN, 5 January 2015, http://money.cnn.com; ‘Emerging world drives cheap smartphone boom’, NDTV Gadgets, 4 March 2015, http://gadgets.ndtv.com.
(9) ‘2011 annual socio-economic report: Access to ICT’, National Bureau of Statistics, http://www.nigerianstat.gov.ng.
(10) ‘Nigerian Govt. to connect half the population to broadband in 2015’, IT News Africa, 7 January 2015, http://www.itnewsafrica.com.
(11) Parr, C., ‘Africa’s mobile phone e-learning transformation’, Times Higher Education, 12 September 2013, http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk.
(12) ‘About the project’, Yoza Project, https://m4lit.wordpress.com.
(13) ‘Mobile devices FAQ – What is Nokia Life Tools?’, Microsoft, http://www.microsoft.com.
(14) ‘Social Learning: A Namibian experiment’, eLearning Africa, 8 May 2013, http://www.elearning-africa.com.
(15) See Gidimo website, http://gidimo.com; EduMe website, http://edume.com; or X-Kit website, https://xkit.mobi.
(16) ‘Turning on Mobile Learning in Africa and the Middle East’, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, 2012, http://unesdoc.unesco.org.
(17) Ibid.
(18) Parr, C., ‘Africa’s mobile phone e-learning transformation’, Times Higher Education, 12 September 2013, http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk.