Remote teaching during a time of crisis in higher education in South Africa

Abstract

Operational activities of higher education institutions in South Africa over recent years have been characterised by much disruption. For instance, the 2015–2016 nationwide #feesmustfall protests calling for a free-fee decolonised higher education curriculum saw a significant disruption to teaching and learning at South African universities. What these student disruptions culminated in was a nationwide lockdown of most campus-based teaching and learning activities in South Africa until the demands of the students were met. The student protests in South Africa presented many universities with opportunities to have trialed and assessed effective remote teaching strategies to continue with the academic project. In this regard, the term online learning gained much prominence during this time, as higher education institutions touted it as a solution, to ensure completion of the academic year. While some traditional affluent and research-led universities in South Africa were able to develop appropriate measures of learning under the guidance of remote teaching and learning to continue with the academic project, many other historically disadvantaged universities lagged significantly behind. The reality is that in South Africa, half of its population remains offline with no access to the Internet. The unequal access to technology has undoubtedly had substantial implications for the way universities in South Africa have responded to nationwide protests as a significant crisis in higher education. Many networking companies during the protests offered zero-rate access to university websites for students through continued efforts by many universities to negotiate for such a vital need. However, the reality is that the absence of a clear harmonised strategy to assist the majority of universities in South Africa meant that these institutions remained reactionary as protests escalated in most instances violently over time. Remote teaching was used as a response to the nationwide protests by the majority of universities in South Africa which we view as conservative instead of an innovative measure necessary to enhance the educational encounters among students and academics.