| Abstrakt: |
This conceptual paper analyses secondary data to explore the challenges posed by the electronic payment system on rural parents in Zimbabwe as they try to secure better educational opportunities for their children. We employed the modernisation theory of development and Lloyd Morrisett's theory of the digital divide gap to explore how rural parents suffer from digital shock, thus excluded from the benefits of the electronic payment system. We acknowledge that the electronic payment system is convenient, queue-free, and independent of time and place compared to cash payment. However, we found out that the rural areas of Zimbabwe are lagging in the use of electronic payment due to low rates of literacy and numeracy, intermittent power supply, lack of electronic gadgets, connectivity, fraud and theft risks, premium charges, and language barrier. When transposed to education, most rural parents are more likely to struggle to use the digital system to purchase goods and services required for education, such as data for online learning, fees, uniforms, books, and stationery. We attest that this affects their children resulting in reduced opportunities compared to their counterparts from affluent urban families. We recommend that the ministry of finance spearhead training and public awareness campaigns on the advantages and limitations of the electronic payment system. We also proffer the need to reduce premium charges for electronic payments so that the system is affordable to poor rural parents who need to support their children's education out of hard-earned cash. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
