Empowering Education Through Technology: Enhancing Quality and Relevance in South Africa’s Democratic Era

Abstract

Purpose: This work aims at exploring the changes that have occurred in the South African education system through use of technology in quality, equity and relevance while operating within a democracy. As a secondary research method, the study uses an integration model sourced from 20 years of associated literature, government reports, and institutional policies. Research.methodologies including thematic content analysis and data visualization were used to analyze trends and capture both pre and post state of the art digital transformation phases that are evident in the South African education context.  Sources of concern: A summary of research areas: Key findings include continuity of inequalities in access to digital resources, especially in rural areas, and inadequate infrastructure, teacher training, and professional development. However, the study reveals successful ICT enabled education case in reduction of students’ poor attention, enhanced knowledge acquisition and improvement of institutional performance. The study concludes with a conceptual model for technology adoption at scale, applicable in the SA socio-political and economic context.  Conclusions consist of policy initiatives for infrastructure construction, teacher professional development, and fair technology distribution. For practitioners, the research provides a blueprint of the best practice in the use of ICT solutions to solve system Development for Practitioners PD to link the theoretical framework with the application area. Thus, this research helps enrich academic discourse on sustainable education for the world with the focus on the transformative role of technology in social and economic development. The Originality of the framework is that it condenses the secondary data into an applicative framework to address the identified challenges in providing education quality and equity in South Africa having hinged the solutions on technology.