Ochieng Vollan Okoth, Asego Catherine Salina, Gyasi Razak M
Education Development Trust, Highbridge House, 16-18 Duke Street, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Reading, Berkshire RG1 4RU, United Kingdom.
African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), APHRC Campus, P.O. Box 10787-00100, Kitisuru, Nairobi, Kenya.
Sci Afr. 2023 Jul;20:e01658. doi: 10.1016/j.sciaf.2023.e01658. Epub 2023 Mar 31.
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted livelihoods on different fronts and at varying degrees globally. The global education sector was one of the key sectors that bore the heaviest brunt, particularly in the teaching and learning delivery modes. For instance, digital educational technologies became vital methods for teaching and learning. In response, a number of initiatives were adopted by countries to lend insight into how to cope with the emergent challenges, as well as how to alleviate the challenges brought about by the pandemic for post-COVID-19 recovery and growth. In this paper, we explore the contribution of industry and academia to post-COVID-19 recovery and growth, with a special focus on education technologies (ICT)'s adoption and promotion of entrepreneurial efforts in Africa. To attain the paper's objective, we used a scoping review approach to obtain crucial literature from credible and relevant databases to demonstrate and deliver succinct, stronger, clear, and clarified findings on the areas of focus. Additionally, we visited websites of certain international organizations that supported sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically focusing on responses targeting the education sector. The findings highlighted in this paper reveal that both academia and industry have a significant contribution to building back better efforts for a post-COVID-19 recovery and growth. Such efforts operate within the realms of adoption and adaptation of technology in the education sector, and increased emphasis on involvement in entrepreneurship practices. The paper also offers salient recommendations on how to better improve academia and industry's involvement in post-COVID-19 recovery and growth efforts.
新冠疫情在全球不同领域、不同程度上扰乱了人们的生计。全球教育部门是受冲击最严重的关键部门之一，尤其是在教学和学习的交付模式方面。例如，数字教育技术成为教学和学习的重要方法。对此，各国采取了一系列举措，以深入了解如何应对新出现的挑战，以及如何缓解疫情给新冠疫情后复苏和增长带来的挑战。在本文中，我们探讨了行业和学术界对新冠疫情后复苏和增长的贡献，特别关注教育技术（信息通信技术）在非洲的采用和对创业努力的促进。为实现本文的目标，我们采用了范围审查方法，从可信且相关的数据库中获取关键文献，以展示并提供关于重点领域简洁、有力、清晰且明确的研究结果。此外，我们访问了某些在应对新冠疫情时支持撒哈拉以南非洲（SSA）国家的国际组织的网站，特别关注针对教育部门的应对措施。本文强调的研究结果表明，学术界和行业在为新冠疫情后复苏和增长做出更好的重建努力方面都有重大贡献。这些努力体现在教育部门技术的采用和适应领域，以及对参与创业实践的更多重视。本文还就如何更好地提高学术界和行业对新冠疫情后复苏和增长努力的参与度提出了重要建议。
