A Closer Look at Internet Use in a Developing Economy: The Democratic Republic of Congo

After reading Pew Research Center's report on the digital divide between advanced and developing economies, I decided to do some reading on Internet use in one developing economy: The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Pew Research Center noted that sub-Saharan Africa, where the DRC is located, lags behind the rest of the world in Internet and Smartphone use.  Focusing on scholarly research on education and Internet use in the DRC, I didn't find much. What I did find was eye-opening, however. I found a paper written by professors at the University of Kinshasa about developing blended learning. Here is a quote from that paper that stood out to me:

...in a country where the internet penetration rate is one of the lowest on the continent with nearly 19% for a population of 88.18 million people, or 16.35 million internet users, it would be illusory to believe that we could move to distance learning without significant adaptation difficulties. The other serious problem is the energy challenge facing the Democratic Republic of Congo. The country has one of the lowest rates of electrification in the world. Less than 10% of the Congolese population has access to electricity, 35% in urban areas (50% in Kinshasa) and less than 1% in rural areas and without electricity, there can be no digital development.

 Read that again and let it sink in. 

Higher Education in the DRC 

The country has many private universities, but only four public ones. At public universities there is:

• - No online or blended learning
• - No learning management systems like Moodle or Canvas
• - No WiFi on campus

How do students and teachers collaborate?

• - In person before, during, and after class
• - using WhatsApp
• - Grades are often posted in the WhatsApp group and/or on a sheet of paper stuck on the wall of the classroom
• - Attendance is often taken by circulating a paper attendance sheet during class. After class, the teacher often transfers the data to an electronic format

If you want to read the article I found, here is a link.