https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67832831
Many young Nigerians fail their university entrance exams as they lack very basic tech skills.
[a student] had resorted to learning from videos on YouTube but describes being nervous when eventually faced with the real thing.
Wait, what? How was he using YouTube if he couldn't figure out how to use a computer? This implies that he knows how to use some sort of computing device. Dude figured out a phone but not a PC? I always thought that if you could learn to use one, picking up the other could come naturally, even your first time. I mean back in 2012 I picked up on Android pretty quickly after only ever having PCs and brick phones since the 80s.
If I'm not mistaken, there's a weird trend here.
My SO worked in admin at a school for a few years, primarily young people of less fortunate backgrounds, immigrants, etc.
To her great surprise, almost everyone aged 16-22 knew how to use a phone, but an equality small percentage were comfortable with PCs, macbooks or other desktop systems.
That surprised the hell of me. Like you, I grew up using brick phones, then command line systems, then gui computers. I grew up being better at computers than my parents generation, a digital native who was expected to fix the older generations computers, fully expecting to be one day out-done by the younger generation who would grasp the newer more advanced tech faster than me simply by virtue of having been around it longer.
Somehow that seems to both not be the case and very much be the case. Mobile devices are the native device now, but it seems like being native to mobile does not translate backwards to knowing how to build a computer or what a file system is.
My best bet is that it's a matter of UX and accessibility. You don't learn how to troubleshoot installer errors when everything runs through an app store, the same way I didn't learn how to fix a car like my dad did. I didn't need to.
Yup, calling bs on the article, since a pc is both cheaper and easier than a phone. Besides, if you know how to navigate a window and type into a textbox (both required for YouTube) you know how to write a digital form
This article is made up drama
Mate.
Phones are massive in the developing world. A computer with a power plug for it and the monitor is not cheap or practical when your power goes out frequently. And a laptop battery costs so much more to fill up than a phone and lasts half the time.
Everyone uses phones, even homeless people in my “developed” country use phones over computers.
You are out of touch. All over the world, people use cell phones. Desktop computers require stable power and space. They also aren't cheaper than a cheap cellphone.
Even the most destitute people have cellphones these days. If the country is in good enough shape that a person could procure a computer, then cellphones are likely more available and cheaper. In fact, your cellphone is likely the source of your data connection even if you do have a laptop or some other computer in a remote area.
If my spam box is any indication, computer literacy in Nigeria has been steadily rising for a couple decades now.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Christian is now one of about 240 candidates registered for next year's Jamb who are undergoing free preparatory lessons, including how to use a computer, sponsored by a group of people who come from Ngwo but now live in different parts of the world.
"We found out that 70% of our 218 children who took Jamb failed," said Alex Onyia, a member of the group and CEO of Educare, a company in Lagos that provides software to educational institutions and businesses.
Concerned about the possible impact on crime rates and the youths' prospects, Mr Onyia organised about 12 volunteers, including their local senator, from the Ngwo Yellowpages WhatsApp group which is made up of more than 500 people.
After the first month, the students were taken to a nearby technical institute and given their first assessment during which they were required to sit in front of desktop computers and answer test questions as if they were in an actual Jamb exam, with Educare providing the software.
Some photos on social media once went viral of a teacher in a government school in Ghana who, faced with the same challenge, improvised with detailed chalk diagrams of a Microsoft Word screen.
Mr Onyia has promised the students that he, Senator Osi Ngwu and the Ngwo YellowPages will sponsor all of those who score above 300 in the Jamb with full scholarships for the entire duration of whatever course they choose to study in any Nigerian public university.
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