The internet has put almost limitless stores of information literally at people’s fingertips. Online encyclopedias, free college-level courses, massive open online courses and the like are making it possible to gain usable knowledge and skills without leaving home. With this said, why do such poor levels of education persist in some developing nations? Some say that the internet is not being adequately exploited to universalize education and that this needs to change.

Amanda Gicharu-Kemoli, cofounder and leadership program director of Tech Republic Africa, said that affordability of devices in not the problem. She realized this through her previous work with Google in Kenya.

The mighty mobile

“They were trying to demonstrate to the local population how the internet could make an impact in their everyday life in a more positive way,” she told Rebecca Knight (@knightrm), co-host of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team.

Mobile phone ownership is at 88 percent in Kenya, according to Kemoli. “But there’s a lot of ignorance around what you can do with that phone beyond messaging and calls,” she added.

Clearing a path to tech ed for women and girls

Kemoli said the solution to the problem lay in raising digital literacy levels. “I realized it’s really deeply rooted in our education system where people are learning Industrial Age type skills whereas right now we are in the Artificial Intelligence Age,” she explained.

Hardest hit by the deficiencies are girls and women. “They do have challenges accessing even basic education, so accessing STEM education is completely out of the question,” according to Kemoli.

Tech Republic Africa aims to show Kenyans what tech and tech education can do in terms of accessing information, improving society and creating jobs. They have found that peer-to-peer marketing in these traditional societies has helped to get people interested in the programs they offer.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the Anita Borg Institute’s Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

Photo by SiliconANGLE