1 The Status of ICT Access and use in South African Schools: Comparing the Rural and Urban Schools in the Mpumalanga Province

In education, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is considered part of a solution to addressing the changing learning needs of societies. Despite the impressive promise of ICT however, the majority in rural areas lack basic resources such as classrooms, desks, and ultimately ICT resources. This paper investigates ICT resource challenges faced by rural schools in South Africa – by comparison to their urban counterparts. The paper adopts a qualitative, descriptive, and explanatory method of research. It is based on both secondary and primary data sources. A purposive sampling method was collect data through interviews of school officials in the Mpumalanga region. Results show urban schools to be generally well equipped, both in terms of technical and social resources. Rural schools on the other hand, either lack the physical infrastructure, or some have a few computers but lack programs. Theft and vandalism also emerged as a major challenge for most, whilst computer literacy for teachers is a problem for all sampled schools in the province. Where computers exist in rural areas, the numbers are far too small to be useful given their ratio to the amount of learners. A framework to analyse the schools computerisation effort is then used to explain the findings.