Is the implementation of the ICT curriculum in low income schools in Africa swimming against or with the tides? The case of selected schools in Zimbabwe

The launch of the new Zimbabwean curriculum in 2017 was fraught with challenges in terms of access to digital tools and usage. This case study deep-seated in the qualitative approach examines the nature of digital divide in Zimbabwean secondary schools drawing reference from the implementation of the new 2015-2022 Zimbabwean curriculum in which ICT is embedded. Informed by van Dijk's (The deepening divide: Inequality in the information society, SAGE, 2005) theory on resources and appropriation, the study made use of in-depth interviews and observations to generate data from six purposively sampled School Heads drawn from three rural and three urban schools. Results suggested that, while the introduction of ICT as a learning area had created a pathway for equity in life chances for all learners in the digitalised world, it also continued to entrench and maintain social stratification, thereby perpetuating the happiness of the already privileged. Thematic analysis demonstrates that the Zimbabwean education system while trying to correct the colonial inequalities continues to be plagued with digital divide challenges with regards to equity in context of ICT implementation which created and cemented inequalities in life opportunities. This study recommends that governments; schools and local communities mitigate the life inequalities through the resuscitation of the Schools Computerization Programme (SCP), resource mobilisation and the establishment of free cyber centres in low income schools where the children of the poor learn.