Only 4% Of Adults In Zimbabwe Can ‘Copy And Paste’ Files: Worrying

Alvine Chaparadza Avatar
hands on laptop, online, data, digital marketing, nkdigital

This may come as surprise for many to know that as much as 96% of adults in Zimbabwe cannot ‘copy and paste’ files. In human-computer interaction, ‘copy and paste’ is used to transfer data from one area to another area. These worrying figures are according to the 2018 Global Education Monitoring Report Gender Review.

This is a cause for concern to a country that has recently launched The ICT Innovation Drive. While Zimbabwe is known for its high literacy rates these figures provide a worrying contrast because computer literacy is needful if innovation is to be realized in the wider economy.

Why do we have such statistics?

Most people who are currently considered adults went to school around the time when computers were scarce in schools so they were not exposed to computers in their early ages. Even when the adults got employed few organizations provide computers for every employee hence performing a simple computer task like to ‘copy and paste’ is hard.

The future of computer literacy in Zimbabwe

Whilst the above-mentioned stats are worrying, kids currently in school are exposed to the computer so that means computer literacy in Zimbabwe will eventually increase drastically.

Former president Mugabe launched the National e-Learning Programme in 2012 but the initiative never got anyway perhaps because of underfunding or a lack of will. Institutions like The Computer Society of Zimbabwe should lobby to convince schools to provide computers to students and crash courses for adults to learn the basics of computers so that the country will fit in the oncoming technology-driven world.

12 comments

  1. TheKing

    Why “Copy and Paste” when you can “Cut and Paste”?

  2. man

    is this from a PC perspective only or does it include mobile devices too?? I somehow suspect that there could be misgivings in with this data. surely of all the graduates from colleges and varsities since the use of computers the number cannot be that low. Never mind those that learnt to share files like movies, music and such like from their peers. Drag and drop should count as well, shouldn’t it?

  3. 1 ZW

    Overtime I have learnt to take with a grain of salt anything techzim publishes and to make my own investigations and confirmations. The publication says

    “2014–2016 showed that most adults in low and middle income countries could not perform even the most basic ICT functions. Only 4% of adults in Sudan and Zimbabwe could copy and paste files, and only 2% to 4% of adults”

    This means
    (1) These are old statistics from more than 2 years ago. They are irrelevant and false right now, what are the current 2018 stats that represent now?

    (2) This referred only to “adults in low and middle income countries”. This does not refer to all adult classes in Zimbabwe so 4% is wrong and invalid. What about the adults in high income classes?

    Here is what you need to do techzim.

    Tone down on the unnecessary speed and excitement.
    Next time when you report make sure you report factual and current facts. Just because an external org published it doesn’t mean its factual or makes sense.
    Thoroughly verify anything before you post

    Anyone who reads this article looks at 4% Zimbabwean adults only being able to copy and paste but that is not representing the entirety of the Zimbabwean adults population and the statistics are old from more than 2 years ago. It’s simply rubbish

    You might as well carry out your own survey it would surely be more factual

  4. One ZW

    Overtime I have learnt to take with a grain of salt anything techzim publishes and to make my own investigations and confirmations. The publication says

    “2014–2016 showed that most adults in low and middle income countries could not perform even the most basic ICT functions. Only 4% of adults in Sudan and Zimbabwe could copy and paste files, and only 2% to 4% of adults”

    This means
    (1) These are old statistics from more than 2 years ago. They are irrelevant and false right now, what are the current 2018 stats that represent now?

    (2) This referred only to “adults in low and middle income countries”. This does not refer to all adult classes in Zimbabwe so 4% is wrong and invalid. What about the adults in high income classes?

    Here is what you need to do techzim.

    Tone down on the unnecessary speed and excitement.
    Next time when you report make sure you report factual and current facts. Just because an external org published it doesn’t mean its factual or makes sense.
    Thoroughly verify anything before you post

    Anyone who reads this article looks at 4% Zimbabwean adults only being able to copy and paste but that is not representing the entirety of the Zimbabwean adults population and the statistics are old from more than 2 years ago. It’s simply insane

    You might as well carry out your own survey it would surely be more factual

  5. Ash

    @TheKing, there are cases when you would like to use Copy and Paste instead of Cut and Paste for example, when you want movies from another person’s computer there is no need to cut… Back to the article, I don’t quite agree with these statistics coz nearly everyone(well not everyone, but at least 70%) who has been to university from say 2009 up to date can Copy and Paste files whether on PC or Mobile and all those people are more than jus 4%. Apart from University students, some people have always done CnP since way back myself included, even though no one had taught me, what i was taught was Cut not Copy

    1. Anonymous

      manje me i just cut and paste movies so that they get pissed off later when they look for them.

  6. Evermercy Kusure

    Do you know that most old people in the UK a fews year ago couldn’t use a computer but centres were set to help them. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s technology.

  7. Nice

    @one ZW this is what is called a clock bait article…. Judging from the comments it has worked… More views more money… They occasionally post these to increase traffic… Many headlines mislead the reader just like newspapers…

  8. Hmmmmm

    “Needful” and “never got anyway”? F7 guys, F7!

  9. Sagitarr

    Whilst up to date and accurate research findings might be difficult to obtain, there are some undeniable facts in this article, including contributions by way of comments.
    Basic literacy (ability to read and write) is very high in Zimbabwe but it is by far lower than computer literacy (ability to use computers in industry). With increased computerization, basic literacy doesn’t count for much these days but it remains one of the building blocks of ICT.
    What has been covered here is so basic in Word Processing (Copy/Cut and Paste) can be applied to text within one document or files across different media. There are other examples that are more complex than this – OLE, file/data conversion, using spreadsheet/worksheets for data analysis, computer-aided design, manufacturing, software development, research, project management, mechanization etc There is so much to learn as long as one has an insatiable appetite to do so. If this appetite is lacking, one gets left behind wherever they may be living, working or “idling”.

  10. slim shady

    This article is intended for readers who are gullible…the one’s that strongly believed in the Mabhinya story doing rounds on WhatsApp recently…Techzim actually believed this BS…smh…this screams click bait…

  11. slim shady

    This article is intended for readers who are gullible…the one’s that strongly believed in the Mabhinya story doing rounds on WhatsApp recently…Techzim actually believed this BS…smh…this screams click bait….

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