Rural South African women’s experiences of ODEL: A case study of KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, and the Eastern Cape Province

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In the quiet rural corners of South Africa, where digital signals fade and determination endures, women continue to chase the promise of education through screens they can barely access. This paper aims to evaluate the effects of digital exclusion on the educational participation and success of rural South African women in Open Distance and Electronic Learning (ODEL) institutions. It is also aimed at demonstrating how intersecting factors such as gender, geography, cultural expectations, and socioeconomic inequalities shape their engagement with online higher education. The study employed a qualitative analytical method, supported by thematic coding, to interpret in-depth interviews conducted with eighteen (18) female students enrolled in ODEL programmes across KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, and the Eastern Cape. This dataset offered nuanced insights into the lived realities of women navigating learning under resource-scarce, patriarchal, and digitally disconnected environments. Findings of the study demonstrate that (i) ODEL systems often assume digital fluency and urban connectivity, inadvertently excluding rural learners; (ii) the lack of culturally responsive and localised support structures intensifies academic isolation, emotional fatigue, and technological disadvantage; and finally, (iii) rural women exhibit extraordinary resilience and agency, yet remain structurally invisible in institutional policy frameworks. The study concludes that achieving true equity in South Africa’s ODEL landscape requires a shift towards hybrid, humanized learning models that integrate offline academic support, vernacular communication, and community-based mentorship. By centring the voices of rural women, this paper challenges prevailing assumptions about access, inclusion, and digital justice in higher education.

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