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The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has become an essential part of many people’s daily lives. It has truly transformed the way people communicate and connect, despite their personal distances. The digital world offers tremendous opportunities, but at the same time it also involves many challenges, such as the matter of unequal access to it.
Technology mirrors the societies that have created it, and intersecting spectrums of exclusion including gender, ethnicity, age, social class, geography, and disability have an impact on the access to and effective use of technologies (O’Donnell & Sweetman, 2018). The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the already existing digital divide around the world and widened these digital gaps even more.
The pandemic’s impact on the field of education globally is unquestionable. Around the world, learning moved online in a short period, and preparedness for this rapid shift varied greatly. Whereas some students have been able to study with the help of already existing digital tools during the pandemic, others have struggled with obtaining suitable digital equipment or internet access, which has challenged and hindered participation in learning. For some, the opportunities to participate in learning were completely lost.
According to a study by the United Nations Children’s Fund and International Telecommunication Union (2020), there is an evident lack of access to digital technology worldwide as two-thirds of children and young people (aged 25 years or less) do not have an internet connection at home. This has greatly created inequalities related to remote learning. In addition to barriers related to internet access and digital tools, digital literacy is another factor that can hinder online learning.
Furthermore, due to the pandemic, especially girls’ education has been even at a greater risk. As it could have been already witnessed during the Ebola outbreak years ago, these kind of international health crisis affect girls more than boys as they may not be able to return to school anymore (Lorente, Arrabal & Pulido-Montes, 2020). Especially girls face many obstacles in accessing school education in many countries around the globe and the pandemic has not made it any easier. These barriers, such as child marriage, early pregnancy, gender-based violence, female genital mutilation, sexual exploitation, and child labor, are usually heightened during crises (Taulo & Robles, 2021). It is yet to see what kinds of long-term effects on participation in education the pandemic will still have in the coming years.
The COVID -19 pandemic created a global learning disruption of unprecedented scale and severity, but at the same time, it also revealed a great potential for innovation in education and the reform of education systems (UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Bank & OECD, 2021). ICTs have already transformed learning in many ways, and more is yet to come. Importantly, ICTs have great potential in tackling the global education crisis and bridging the digital divide in education. How could digital tools help to secure inclusive education so that no one is left behind in learning? In addition, finding ways how ICTs could foster more inclusive participation and promote dialogue in learning would mean an important contribution to the development of online learning in general.
References:
Lorente, L. M. L., Arrabal, A.A. & Pulido-Montes, C. (2020). The Right to Education and ICT during COVID-19: An International Perspective. Sustainability, 12, 9091. DOI: 10.3390/su12219091
O’Donnell, A. & Sweetman, C. (2018). Introduction: Gender, Development and ICTs. Gender & Development, 26(2), 217-229. DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2018.1489952
Taulo, W.G. & Omar Robles, O. (2021). Where Are the Girls and Why it Matters as Schools Reopen? The UNICEF Blog. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/blog/where-are-the-girls-and-why-it-matters-as-schools-reopenh
UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Bank & OECD. (2021). What’s Next? Lessons on Education Recovery: Findings from a Survey of Ministries of Education amid the COVID-19 Pandemic, Paris, New York, Washington D.C.: UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank.
United Nations Children’s Fund & International Telecommunication Union. (2020). How Many Children and Young People Have Internet Access at Home? Estimating Digital Connectivity During the COVID-19 Pandemic, New York: UNICEF.