Education and Rural Areas

1. Can ICTs be innovatively used in the absence of minimum literacy levels among the poor?
Yes they can be used in the absence of minimum literacy levels among the poor. The ICT plays a big role in the rural areas and benefits the people that live there. ICT’s are used in the poor communities to empower and help the illiterate and people with less knowledge.
Applications in agricultural and rural development have often been to provide direct access to market and weather information for the poor and also provides knowledge support to research and extension services.
The radio for example enables farmers to acquire contemporary agricultural and environmental management techniques to receive daily market information to advertise their farm product and also learn business skills.
A simple mobile is also proving to be an important factor facilitating the flow of remittances both international and national as it is the flow of goods and services within nations.
2. How can the same ICTs be used for multiple purposes?
The mobile, radios and television are not just used for a single purpose they have so many different advantages and purposes that benefit the poor communities.
There are two ways in which ICTs have been used when applied to development programs:
• ICT driven
• ICT support
Management information systems for government in project implementation help to improve efficiency and effectiveness in delivering basic services.
3. What steps are needed to use, say the Internet for meeting the educational and health needs of poor female farmers in an isolated rural community?
Education
Education is the primary need for any problem that the poor community face. It is crucial in addressing issues of poverty, gender equality as well as health problems. It is not just i important in rural areas but in every corner of the earth. If people are educated then the world wouldn’t be facing so many problems and poverty as we see in today’s time.
ICTs play a major role in Education because it enhances the access and maintains quality standards while ensuring the best use of resources for formal and non-formal and teacher education.
Buildings of schools, expansion of the education system as well as hiring teachers can be the first steps taken in addressing educational need.
The internet for example can be used for research. They can learn so much from the internet without having to struggle so much. Being computer literate is very important in today’s time and it is so easy to access any information one might need.
Health
E-Health is the vital term that includes all aspects of ICT use in health care.
This includes telemedicine, where medical advice or consultation I provided over long distances via satellite, broadband, radio, telephone or other communication technologies. This is the most common ICT in the health sector. This ICT application should be used in every community especially in rural areas as much as it can to improve the health conditions that exist there.
The first step would be to use Telemedicine because it connects the patients in rural and poor areas to medical specialist in the city it can also be used to transmit clinical data from multiple sources to facilitate diagnosis and treatment.
Poor Female farmers
ICTs can help poor female farmers in educating them. ICTs offer opportunities for them to the outside world, home-based e-commerce opportunities and networking with other woman and forming support group online.
Once woman have access to ICTs it is possible to empower them through innovative means. ICTs can facilitate woman’s participation in government and political affairs by providing a communication platform to exchange opinions to articulate and aggregate interest and engage with political leaders about woman’s issue.
There are more barriers to woman’s employment then opportunities. Issues such as Gender domination, Lack of education, Affordability as well as the international English Language.
In my opinion these four factors are the most important ones to address for poor female farmers.
The first step is to educate them as well as the community about their rights to education as well as free life. The government should provide free education and all its resources so they may not need to face any kind of difficulty in buying something they cannot afford. It’s the responsibility of the government to provide the school, teachers, books and resources needed
Secondly be thought the international English language. Which becomes a barrier to most non English language speakers.
Thirdly they should be educated about gender equality so they or their culture don’t restrict them from learning as well as teach them about their rights