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The Use of Digital Transformation to Address Education Challenges Caused by COVID-19 in Developing Countries

Received: 12 August 2020    Accepted: 31 August 2020    Published: 4 November 2020
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Abstract

The abrupt coming of Covid-19 has been drastically altered the way the whole world is conducting all its sectors. The purpose of this study is to examine the use of digital transformation to address education Covid-19 challenges, bringing digital opportunities and lessons to developing countries particularly Uganda and Tanzania. This is motivated by the massive challenges, which the education sector in developing nations like Uganda and Tanzania is facing due to covid-19 pandemic outbreak, where students have not be learning since the outbreak in March 2020, hence affecting their normal progress, among other costs. It should be recalled that, the pandemic was first reported on 27 December 2019 in China- in the capital city of Wuhan, in Hubei province [31]. It immediately spread like bush fire and affected mostly at first European nations of Italy, United Kingdom, German France, and United States of America (leading currently). The pandemic later in early March 2020 spread in Africa, which abruptly left them with no choice other than closure of their borders, implementation of WHO guidelines on covid- 19. There was abrupt closure of sectors, which started from education to the rest, apart from the health sector to cater for the patients in many countries including Uganda and Tanzania. This study utilized qualitative method; narrative approach and literature review method, and narrative data analysis and contentment analysis were used. Findings revealed that the use of digital transformation in the education sector has numerous benefits and if embraced fully, it will address the key challenges faced by the education sectors of Uganda and Tanzania as developing countries. The study also revealed that Covid- 19 has increased the use of digital transformation in home personal learning among students who were prior facing a challenge of technophobia and had resorted to brick and mortar learning. The study recommends the adoption and implementation of the proposed of digital transformation framework in education sector to attain UNDP goals, UN sustainable development goals and equip the young generation with digital skills which will eventually reduce poverty via creative and innovative digital online jobs, hence narrowing the digital gap between MDCs and LDCs. This study has limitations, implications and recommendations as detailed in the paper.

Published in Social Sciences (Volume 9, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.ss.20200906.14
Page(s) 233-240
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Digital Transformation, Education Challenges, COVID-19, Developing Countries

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  • APA Style

    Sumaya Kagoya. (2020). The Use of Digital Transformation to Address Education Challenges Caused by COVID-19 in Developing Countries. Social Sciences, 9(6), 233-240. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20200906.14

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    Sumaya Kagoya. The Use of Digital Transformation to Address Education Challenges Caused by COVID-19 in Developing Countries. Soc. Sci. 2020, 9(6), 233-240. doi: 10.11648/j.ss.20200906.14

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    AMA Style

    Sumaya Kagoya. The Use of Digital Transformation to Address Education Challenges Caused by COVID-19 in Developing Countries. Soc Sci. 2020;9(6):233-240. doi: 10.11648/j.ss.20200906.14

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ss.20200906.14,
      author = {Sumaya Kagoya},
      title = {The Use of Digital Transformation to Address Education Challenges Caused by COVID-19 in Developing Countries},
      journal = {Social Sciences},
      volume = {9},
      number = {6},
      pages = {233-240},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ss.20200906.14},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20200906.14},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ss.20200906.14},
      abstract = {The abrupt coming of Covid-19 has been drastically altered the way the whole world is conducting all its sectors. The purpose of this study is to examine the use of digital transformation to address education Covid-19 challenges, bringing digital opportunities and lessons to developing countries particularly Uganda and Tanzania. This is motivated by the massive challenges, which the education sector in developing nations like Uganda and Tanzania is facing due to covid-19 pandemic outbreak, where students have not be learning since the outbreak in March 2020, hence affecting their normal progress, among other costs. It should be recalled that, the pandemic was first reported on 27 December 2019 in China- in the capital city of Wuhan, in Hubei province [31]. It immediately spread like bush fire and affected mostly at first European nations of Italy, United Kingdom, German France, and United States of America (leading currently). The pandemic later in early March 2020 spread in Africa, which abruptly left them with no choice other than closure of their borders, implementation of WHO guidelines on covid- 19. There was abrupt closure of sectors, which started from education to the rest, apart from the health sector to cater for the patients in many countries including Uganda and Tanzania. This study utilized qualitative method; narrative approach and literature review method, and narrative data analysis and contentment analysis were used. Findings revealed that the use of digital transformation in the education sector has numerous benefits and if embraced fully, it will address the key challenges faced by the education sectors of Uganda and Tanzania as developing countries. The study also revealed that Covid- 19 has increased the use of digital transformation in home personal learning among students who were prior facing a challenge of technophobia and had resorted to brick and mortar learning. The study recommends the adoption and implementation of the proposed of digital transformation framework in education sector to attain UNDP goals, UN sustainable development goals and equip the young generation with digital skills which will eventually reduce poverty via creative and innovative digital online jobs, hence narrowing the digital gap between MDCs and LDCs. This study has limitations, implications and recommendations as detailed in the paper.},
     year = {2020}
    }
    

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Author Information
  • Department of Applied Computing and Information Technology, Faculty of Computing and Informatics, Makerere University Business School, Kampala, Uganda

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