Digital Literacy has many interpreted definitions, one that is most relevant to the discussion here today is, having the skills you need to live, learn, and work in a society where communication and access to information are increasingly through digital technologies like internet platforms, social media, and mobile devices.
Whether in an over or sparsely populated country, Africa struggles with literacy in general. Once Governments understand that real investment needs to be done in education, we will be one step closer to realizing digital literacy.
If a person is deprived in 30% of 11 weighted indicators grouped under the three dimensions of ‘Education’, ‘Health’ and ‘Living Standards’, they are considered multidimensionally poor. According to the 2021 report by the Namibia Statistics Agency, multidimensional poverty was determined to affect 43% of the Namibian population. With Namibia ranking 113th on the list of the most expensive countries to live in, with the low end of people living in poverty surviving on as little as a USD 1.90 (translating into NAD 29.17) per day and at the high-end USD 5.50 (a NAD 84.32) per day.
The first inequality is the teacher to learner ratio. In Namibia the ratio is 24 660 teachers for 617 827 learners. Thus, a ratio of 0.03 teachers for each child. 1/3 of Namibian children miss school because feeding programs are failing, and often there is no transport. An estimated 55 00 Namibian school-going children don’t even have shoes.
With 1 723 primary and secondary schools, of which 119 are private, the educational divide and inequality increases as many Namibian schools don't have access to running water and electricity, let alone access to the internet.
Unless Government, regulators, the private sector, and tech philanthropic organizations take hands and find realistic solutions that are affordable to address the ever-increasing educational poverty, we will not be able to address digital literacy to raise the standards of education and deliver the future leaders of Namibia, Africa, and the world.
If the purpose of education is the integral development of a person, through academic achievement, character and mindset development as well as social cohesion and equality, it is a source of its obvious benefits for a fuller and better life. Education can contribute to the betterment of society as a whole. It develops a society in which people are aware of their rights and duties, then digital literacy is the tool to achieve this. Through this educational poverty will be eradicated.
Thus, in the future, driven by the 4th and emerging 5th industrial revolution, digital literacy will be at the heart of education and the focal point of the modern era.
Author: Sonja Coetzer, Managing Director @ Salt
Did you know only a few things in Namibia require a physical signature, such as a sale of property, and wills and estates? The rest can all be signed electronically. 'Struesbob.
We are using Adobe Sign which integrates fully into Microsoft 365. Electronic signing made easy, compliant, and legal!
Salt is currently running a promotion with Adobe Sign where you sign up for 50 free transactions (signatures) to test it out. Email sales@salt.na to find out more or sign up for the promotion.
Author: Beaulah Keis, Commercial Expansion Representative @ Salt
Salt offers professional Teams telephony for the enterprise – making the move to Microsoft voice easy!
With Tendfor’s state of the art switchboard and contact centre, Teams telephony is your path to lower TCO and smarter functionality for switchboard attendants, contact centre agents and office users. Packed with productivity-oriented solutions, user-friendly and easy to maintain – Tendfor finally makes voice a modern part of your IT infrastructure.
Tendfor leverages the full power of the new native Teams switchboard & contact centre capabilities and takes advantage of:
Tendfor‘s all API-based and within the Microsoft 365 cloud topology (a world’s first!) means that you can now finally move to Teams telephony without compromising on your functionality and customer service demands. offers
Microsoft Teams is the perfect UCC-platform for hybrid work and internal communications. Adding Tendfor's contact centre and attendant console support also integrates all external communication needs, cutting costs in the process. We make leaving legacy solutions behind easy. If you are interested to find more about Tendfor, please reach out to sales@salt.na and let’s get in touch. You’ll be so happy you did.
Author: Grace Katjivena, Service Desk Engineer @ Salt
Last month, Microsoft officially ended its support of Windows 7, a decade-old operating system. The original end-of-support was actually in January 2020, so users squeezed a good extra 20 months out of it. Now it’s officially done.
While most users have long since abandoned Windows 7 in favour of various newer flavours of the Windows OS, there are still many computers running the outdated operating system. Many experts saw Windows 7 as a significant advance over its predecessor, Windows Vista, as well as more reliable than its immediate successor, Windows 8; it received positive reviews on a considerably more consistent basis than any of the others. That reason, combined with many people's and businesses' aversion to replacing a functional system ("if it ain't broke, don't fix it"), has resulted in Windows 7 continuing to run on a substantial number of devices for more than a decade after its initial release.
However, running Windows 7 today can result in many major issues, which you should be aware of.
We've had already encountered the following:
This is what you should do as soon as possible:
If you keep running Windows 7, it’s just a matter of time before your business applications stop working altogether or you experience a security attack. Or both. Either way, you will lose a lot of money.
Contact Salt at contact@salt.na for a discussion about the best, cost-effective solution to keep your business running smoothly and safely. Our people will enable your people.
Author: Ivan Musuuo - Field Engineer @ Salt
