CONNECTIVITY, EDUCATION AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

This document is an analysis of the relationship between the expansion of connectivity infrastructures and Rural Development. It deals with the frameworks of the public agenda in Colombia, in which reference is made to technological implementation as a strategy for the reduction of gaps, in terms of development, existing at the regional level. The reality of the rural edge of Usme, an area located in the periphery of the city of Bogota, is considered in order to understand the importance of connectivity for the universalization of access to information and the acquisition and efficient use of knowledge, as well as the difficulties presented to achieve technological penetration and literacy in the rural sector. Considering the relevant role of education as a determining factor in social development, a link is established between connectivity and access to social benefits for the rural population. The Manual for the Formulation and Execution of Rural Education Plans in Colombia affirms that education plays a central role in rural development since it provides the capacities to understand social and economic life, while promoting the strengthening of competencies coherent with the system productive and access to cultural capital, hence the inequities of the rural sector are linked to the exclusion of their populations to the benefits of knowledge. Given that ICT facilitates access to it, connectivity difficulties may represent a precariousness of rural development, as they lead to widening gaps with respect to urban sectors, characterized by high rates of access to ICT. Policies such as the National Plan for Rural Connectivity propose the promotion of Internet access conditions in all the municipal capitals of the country, constituting a strategy to improve the quality of life, development and social prosperity.