{"id":18605,"date":"2019-07-23T14:04:51","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T14:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.englishforums.com\/news\/?p=18605"},"modified":"2019-07-23T14:04:51","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T14:04:51","slug":"what-can-4-39-billion-adults-provide-263-million-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/what-can-4-39-billion-adults-provide-263-million-children\/","title":{"rendered":"What Can 4.39 Billion Adults Provide 263 Million Children?"},"content":{"rendered":"

(<\/span>A shoutout to policymakers to help hurdle the Great Digital Divide<\/b>)<\/span>
\nThere are<\/span> 4.39 billion<\/span><\/a> internet users in 2019, an increase of 366 million (9 percent) versus January 2018. There are 3.48 billion social media users in 2019, with the worldwide total growing by 288 million (9 percent) since this time last year.<\/span>
\nAn average of more than one million new users is being added every day, with all of the original \u2018Next Billion Users\u2019 now online. Still, we can see backwoods where civilization has stopped progressing. In some countries, less than 20% can access the Internet because of a lack of infrastructure.<\/span>
\nEducation and the Internet are vital global assets and have improved the lives of humans<\/span>.<\/b> Even though considerable progress has been made in education and Internet connectivity worldwide, the reality is much of the world is still not connected.<\/span>
\nThe digital divide refers to the inequality in access to technology that exists between communities due to regional and demographic differences, particularly socio-economic groups.<\/b>
\nWithout adequate high-speed internet infrastructure, rural schools and the students they serve will be left behind, creating dependency on the already overloaded system, rather than enabling and educating the future workforce.<\/span>
\nWhy Does the Internet Matter to Learning Globally?<\/b>
\nEducation is the basis for social and economic development.<\/span> Without education, a country has little hope of competing globally.<\/b>
\nMany regions face huge challenges in education, from the absence of quality teachers, outdated learning and teaching materials, outdated resources and inadequate school infrastructure.<\/span>
\nAccording to data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), <\/span>approximately 263 million children <\/b>– one in every five – are out of school. This is a figure that has not changed much over the past five years.<\/span>
\nIn comparing rural communities with urban communities, we can see that<\/span> rural communities have insufficient broadband coverage to meet the goal of providing equal education opportunities to everyone.<\/b>
\nThe Rural Digital Desert<\/b>
\nBroadbands distribution to rural areas is not equal to the access urban areas have, creating a \u201cdigital desert,\u201d often defined as the difference between the availability of technology among socioeconomic or racial\/ethnic groups. <\/span>This rural digital desert diminishes access to educational opportunities, resources, and sources of academic and professional support.<\/b>
\nBroadband – Why the fuss for education?<\/b>
\nIt\u2019s estimated that over<\/span> 5 billion people<\/span><\/a> have mobile phones. Broadband connectivity has improved internationally over the past decade, and yet, billions still have no access to the internet.<\/span>
\nBroadband can help connect\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n