Barriers to information access as experienced by learners at rural schools

M.Com. (Information and Knowledge Management)Abstract: Many tertiary education institutions have introduced the process of online applications to prospective students. Although this is a positive change in the world that we are living in today, it assumes that school learners have access to the necessary information and infrastructure available to apply at these institutions. In order to make informed decisions about their education after Grade 12, South African school learners require relevant information. If there are barriers to information, for instance, at rural schools, it will affect the knowledge gained by learners in terms of their further education possibilities. Access to information is one of the human rights in South Africa. People today are able to access any type of information they need, anytime, from anywhere around the world, as long as they have the right resources to do so. The aim of the study was to identify the barriers to information access as experienced by rural school learners, which may possibly have an effect on their knowledge gain for supporting their decisions in terms of furthering their studies at tertiary education institutions. The study was a qualitative evaluation of the perceived access to information, availability of information resources, availability of libraries, and school learners' access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) in rural schools in Limpopo province. Empirical study was conducted in 12 high schools in the Vhembe district of the Limpopo province. A case study research strategy was used to explore a real-life situation, using in-depth face-to-face open-ended interviewing as the data collection method. Data was collected from research participants using the purposive sampling technique. Grade 11 learners as well as their Life Orientation (LO) educators were participants in this study. Qualitative data analysis, specifically the spiral technique, was used to analyse the data. The research findings show that the rural schools visited do have a basic infrastructure suitable for information access and for ICT integration. Apparent ICT skills were also identified. However, the findings show that even though basic information infrastructure was available, access to information, and availability of ICTs, school libraries, public libraries, and tools for information retrieval were lacking. The study recommends the integration of school libraries and ICTs in rural schools in order to overcome the barriers to information and introduction of new information literacy training to educators and school learners