The role of ICTs in South African public schools’ athletics during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown education in turmoil, globally, resulting in many challenges for quality education and associated activities, such as sports, to continue. This study’s foci are on what detrimental effects of discontinued athletics have on the learner athletes; how ICTs utilisation can mitigate these effects and enable continued athletics participation and coaching. A qualitative research approach was employed. Purposive, convenient sampling method was used to select the participants. Data was collected by conducting a face-to-face interview with the coach; examining his artefacts; two focus group interviews with learner athletes and semi-structured questionnaires for their parents to complete. The data was arranged manually according to categories and themes. The findings and recommendations were aligned to the third stage of the Crisis Recovery Stages of Wa-Mbaleka and Costa’ model and the research questions were answered.

Keywords

• ICT's
• Athletes
• COVID-19

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