Assessing Curriculum Access through Information Communication Technology at Selected Zimbabwean Rural Day Secondary Schools.

Abstract

The paper assesses curriculum access through technological tools in Zimbabwean rural day 
secondary schools. While there has been a noticeable upsurge in the use of Information 
Communication Technology packages for teaching and learning in urban secondary schools, the 
same cannot be said for Zimbabwean rural day secondary school counterparts. The article argues 
that rural day secondary schools have remained inadvertently excluded and marginalised in having 
modern day technology to allow the curriculum to be accessed from diverse points, anywhere and 
anytime. Couched within the connectivist framework, the study was a qualitative survey of ten 
(10) rural day secondary schools purposefully selected from four (4) districts of Mashonaland East 
Province in Zimbabwe. The participants in the study were interviewed using semi-structured 
interview protocol. In-loco inspection of the infrastructure and digital tools at each of the selected 
rural day secondary schools was done using an observation check list. The findings indicated an 
education system inefficiency and failure, in which rural day secondary schools have been ‘cut 
off’ from the digital technology consistent with our time, thus impoverishing curriculum access. 
Government and other stakeholders have prioritised investment in non-essential services primarily 
for political expediency at the expense of the young learners’ educational future and development. 
Consequently, the study recommends unwavering government and community commitment to 
resource rural day secondary schools with infrastructure and technological tools to give these 
learners modern-day free educational spaces to discover and experiment with curriculum ideas.