This article as first published in the New Vision on March 3, 2021
Uganda, for the first time, has embraced embedded learning, a move which is likely to benefit women in accessing and excelling in their studies, writes Richard Wetaya
Many Ugandan universities have switched from traditional to online mode of teaching. The number of universities with clearance from the National Council for Higher Education to carry out online teaching has now grown to 30.
More than half of the 51 universities in Uganda are substantially shifting to remote delivery of their courses. This means that these universities, after inspections and re-visiting of their programmes, can now teach and assess students online.
Even with the clearance of universities to re-open for all students, due to limited space and tight standard operating procedures, blended learning could keep in Uganda’s institutions for long; or even forever.
But this change at Victoria University and ISBAT, some of the universities, which were grounded in online lecturing, female students performed well in the last semester assessments. The 2020 University of Dundee study indicated that girls generally outperform boys when taught online.
Speaking to the British online magazine, Education Technology, last year, Dr Walter Douglas, the study’s co-author, said: “Girls generally perform better with online and blended learning, suggesting that the presumed greater competence of boys at information technology is a myth.”
Headteacher of Vienna College, Namugongo Mohammed Kakiika concurs with the viewpoint that girls, indeed, cut the mustard when it comes to e-learning.
“At Vienna College, girls have consistently outperformed boys in online studies. The results of the school’s 2020 Cambridge International Examination A’level results, like many previous ones, bear out that fact,” he says.
“Over time, the experiential deductions that have been made are that girls have a better and higher cognitive e-learning multi-tasking ability than boys and they invariably stand themselves in good stead with their hard work ethic, punctuality, concentration and seriousness in handling assignments,” Kakiika adds.
“If you ask girls to set forth, log in and start a virtual lesson, they act on cue, as opposed to their male colleagues. Empirically, 85-95% of girls earnestly take the cue to concentrate when a teacher or instructor wants to start an e-learning lesson, while only 50% of boys will toe the line,” he says.
According to BestColleges’ 2020 Trends in Online Education: Gender Differences report, over 40% of online students think women face more challenges than men as online learners.
“Despite these challenges, female students continue to dominate the online education space — and excel in it, too,” says the report.
It adds that these days, more women are choosing online education, not as a backup plan after having children, but as the first step toward their career goals. What’s more, the diversification of female learners in terms of marital status and age suggests that women of all backgrounds can glean special benefits from online education.
“Female students today predominate in online learning at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Many women choose to learn online because of the convenience factor,” it adds.
The report also notes: “Historically, online education acted as a career-training avenue for working mothers. Women’s studies scholar Cheris Kramarae calls online education women’s “third shift.” After a work shift, many women return home to perform a “second shift” of household duties. Online education — turning on the computer at the end of a long, laborious day — makes up the third shift.”
Kampala Parents School principal Daphine Kato concurs with the view that girl learners have higher concentration levels in cyberclassrooms. “Girls and boys are complete opposites in learning styles. In cyberclassroom settings, girls naturally excel at activities that require multi-tasking more than boys and they transition between topics much more easily,” he says.
Prof. Ruth Nsibirano, a senior lecturer at the Makerere University School of Women and Gender Studies, also says girls perform better than boys in virtual classrooms.
“It is a fact that girls are more purposeful in virtual classroom spaces. Studies show that when they are not under supervision, boy learners tend to use the Internet for music and other indulgences, rather than for serious study and research, unlike girls,” she says. Kakiika says it did not come as a surprise that girl learners at Vienna College outperformed their male counterparts in last year’s Cambridge International General Certificate of Education examinations (equivalent of Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education examinations). The top eight best-performing students were girls. Daisy Dara Nakazibwe was one of the learners who excelled at the exams. She scored AAAA in biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics.
“I performed well because I adapted to e-learning easily. Being computer literate also helped. What helped the most, however, was concentration. I made sure I was not distracted during lessons.”
Aisha Natukunda, an erstwhile student of Gombe Secondary School also excelled in online exams at her school.
“I was always attentive during lessons and I made sure I scheduled all my lessons. I worked hard and my motivation was high,” she says.
Solutions
The Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University, Dr. Lawrence Muganga, says there is a need for Government to support all students in the country to access cheaper internet for their studies.
“If blended learning is to succeed in universities, alongside the promotion of digital learning in schools, Government must ensure the students have the hardware to use, alongside the access to cheaper internet,” he says.
Kakiika says radical affirmative action in the form of provisions of ICT necessities to underprivileged girl learners as a means of encouraging them to use digital technology is needed.
In a paper she wrote last year, Ugandan telecommunications engineering expert, Josephine Tumwesige, says for internet-supported ICT learning to play its part in supporting continuity of learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and, ultimately achieving education for all, there has to be collaborative partnerships between a wide range of stakeholders at both local and global level.
