New modes of digital literacy are just as important as traditional literacy. Photo: File
Today, African adult literacy rates are at about 67%, an 11% increase on the same figure at the turn of the millennium. But those gains aren’t guaranteed to stay in place, never mind improve, forever. In South Africa, for instance, literacy rates fell 5% in the period 2019-21.
Regarding the distinction between basic literacy and the ability to read for meaning there, too, South Africa falls short. The 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, for instance, shows that 81% of grade four learners cannot read for meaning.
Even as South Africa and the broader African continent struggle to address those challenges, they need to adapt to a new reality. In that reality, new modes of digital literacy will be just as important as traditional literacy, if not more so. In fact, things are changing so fast that it is crucial to redefine literacy for the digital era.
To understand what we mean by that, it’s important to define digital literacy as a distinct evolution of traditional literacy — that is, the reading and writing skills we picked up at school. In the digital age, things are different. A comprehensive definition of literacy must also include critical thinking, problem-solving and digital navigation skills
Without this expanded definition, efforts to solve literacy crises risk being incomplete. Think about how easily swayed people are by pseudo-experts and misinformation on social media today. For older people, it might be that they simply had to pick up digital tools long after finishing school at a time when a digital-first world was still in the realms of science fiction.
For younger people, this points to opportunities for curricula and education systems to better equip teachers to build digital literacy. As a result, you have young people who are at home in digital environments but lack the critical thinking to differentiate between accurate and misleading information.
Here, educational technology (EdTech) products have an important role to play, both in complementing foundational literacy efforts and driving more advanced digital literacy. A good EdTech product can encourage critical thinking and problem-solving, democratise access to learning resources and prepare learners for real-world, digital-first environments.
Across the continent, innovators are building products that offer all of these skills and, importantly, are built for the African context. Adaptive learning platforms like Mindjoy in South Africa or M-Shule in Kenya, for example, use artificial intelligence to pose increasingly complex problems based on a learner’s progress, prompting deeper reasoning instead of rote memorisation.
Mobile-first platforms such as Eneza Education, meanwhile, allow learners in low-resource environments to access world-class content via inexpensive mobile devices. Eneza Education even works for feature phones, as it delivers curriculum-aligned lessons by SMS. And offline-capable solutions, such as Kolibri, allow rural schools with limited internet to still use interactive, high-quality digital content.
Solutions like these are critical in the African context. Importantly, they’re solutions built for Africa, by Africans, rather than just an attempt to clone what has worked well elsewhere.
This expanded definition of literacy is important for several reasons. The most critical of those is that the expanded definition would allow us to better face Africa’s unique challenges, including high illiteracy rates, the digital divide and massive inequality.
An expanded definition could also help build more inclusive development and economic participation. Obviously, digital skills are essential for thriving in today’s workplace. A solid literacy foundation, which includes digital elements, is critical for building those skills.
And as states become increasingly digital-first, they’ll also be critical for everything from applying for identity documents and passports to simply doing grocery shopping. The potential ripple effects of enhanced literacy skills, in other words, are enormous. In addition to improved education, we’ll see better workforce readiness and civic engagement that grapples with real issues, rather than manufactured grievances.
Ultimately, International Literacy Day, 8 September, should spark fresh conversations about what literacy really means. Front and centre of those conversations should be the fact that EdTech must be embraced alongside traditional literacy efforts. Only then will we see a future where African learners aren’t just literate on paper but empowered to think critically and thrive digitally.
Kelly Fisher is the head of marketing and communications at Injini.
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