Rwandan parents have been advised to get involved in their children’s digital learning and life in order to ensure protection from abusive content, online bullying and misinformation among others.
The call was made during the Edtech Monday September episode radio talk show in which experts in the field of digital learning tipped parents on ways to engage children in digital learning but also protect them in the digital age and ever- changing internet world.
The talk show was under the theme “Measuring Parental Involvement in Students’ Digital Learning” and broadcast live on KTradio, KigaliToday YouTube Channel and Twitter (X) Space from 6-7PM this September 30.
Uwimana, the Co-founder, Creator, Producer of Educational Animation and Learning Materials at Dawn Visuals Ltd acknowledged that the internet is a vital tool in life and Rwanda has made progress in availing digital infrastructure and connectivity to increase access but there is need for more efforts in parental engagement in digital learning.
For example, according to a 2023 report by the Rwanda Education Board (REB), over 70% of urban households have access to digital devices, but only 45% of parents actively engage in their children’s online learning activities.
Research by the Rwanda ICT Chamber (in 2022) also indicates that only 30% of parents feel confident using digital platforms to assist their children with schoolwork, highlighting the need for capacity-building programs targeting parental digital literacy.
This disparity reflects not only the digital divide between urban and rural areas but also a gap in digital literacy among parents, which significantly affects their ability to support and guide their children’s digital learning experiences.
Uwimana said that this disparity, partly caused by the fear to use the internet especially among the elderly parents, can be reduced if parents picked interest in using the internet but also using it profitably in child’s digital learning.
“One of the solutions is to use that little data on your phone to download an educational children’s video, a digital lesson, a proverb or even songs instead of using the data on Facebook and breaking news,” Uwimana said.
Though Rwanda’s mobile phone penetration rate has risen to 87.4%, access to smart phones remains limited with Rwandans in a parenting age bracket (25-34 years) being the biggest owners at 72.1%, according to data from Rwanda institutes of statistics.
Despite this gap, Uwimana said that parents who lack smart phones and access to the internet can take advantage of existing equipped libraries opened throughout the country and more community-based libraries being unveiled by development partners.
So far there are more than 120 equipped public libraries opened throughout the country and more community-based libraries being unveiled by development partners like World Vision and USAID under the Soma Rwanda education platform.
Parents should take advantage of such facilities, be it a community library, school with smart classrooms, or a community ICT literacy event, these are important for parents to take part in,” Uwimana said.
For parental guidance, Uwimana also cautioned parents to desist from downloading files which contain adult content which a child can find and view, resulting in misguidance and wrong upbringing of children.
Bonheur Iraguha, CEO and Founder of Posinnove Tech- which links ICT skills gap between fresh graduate students and the labor market said that there are many parents in Rwanda who don’t understand the importance of pursuing a career in technology.
“We still have many parents who don’t know the importance of digital education, who think that a child should become a doctor or lawyer, yet they don’t know that all these careers are currently driven by technology and innovation which define life and employment opportunities today,” Iraguha said.
Iraguha explained that children who are not interested in digital learning can be caused by parents’ lack of interest but also by schools which don’t mentor children at an early age.
Iraguha advised that parents should focus on increasing the amount of children’s educational content on their phones instead of putting their efforts in social media platforms in search of views- which doesn’t build a child’s interest in digital learning.
