ICT utilisation within the basic education sector: Evidence from South Africa, China, and Brazil BRICS Countries Emerging Economies Perspective.

The problem the study seeks to address is why most BRICS economies have low Information Communications Technology (ICT) utilization in schools. As a result, the objective of the study is to determine the ICT utilisation in public and private secondary schools within the basic education sector. The focus of the study is on public and private secondary schools within the BRICS countries as emerging economies notably: South Africa, China and Brazil. The researcher believes pragmatism is an appropriate philosophical paradigm to produce knowledge in this study, hence the mixed method research is applied. Basically, the pragmatism philosophy encompasses both qualitative and quantitative methods. The mixed method research presents an opportunity to conduct a detailed comparative analysis of ICT utilisation between South Africa, China and Brazil, and private and public secondary schools within these BRICS countries. School Management Teams, Teachers, ICT Specialists and Learners are participants in this study. These participants are involved in interviews, completion of surveys and group observations during data collection. The data is collected in all the three (3) BRICS Countries, i.e., South Africa, China, and Brazil in public and private secondary schools to reach the project objectives. There is analysis and comparison of data amongst the mentioned BRICS Countries, and private and secondary schools to determine the levels of ICT utilisation. The study is meant to produce a responsive ICT Utilisation Framework that will guide the implementation of ICTs in the classroom for the emerging economies.