Inequities in access to education: Lessons from the COVID‐19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID‐19 pandemic has brought attention to the stark inequities in public education worldwide, with the United Nations sharing these statistics: Schools closed in 191 countries, affecting 1.5 billion students and 63 million primary and secondary school teachers. Half of students did not have access to a computer, and 40% did not have internet access. A total of 56 million children live in areas that are not served by mobile networks — for example, in sub‐Saharan Africa. In the United States, about 7 million school‐aged children are in homes without home internet service.

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“…For example, 56 million children in sub-Saharan African countries experience digital inequality, as the mobile networks do not provide adequate service and experience problems every day. Even in many developed countries, it is stated that millions of school-age students live in homes without Internet service [21][22][23][24][25][26]. In this context, the results of the research conducted by Jaeger and Blaabaek [27] also revealed that COVID-19 has further increased the inequality in learning opportunities and that families with better socioeconomic status are more advantaged than financially more impoverished families during the pandemic.…”

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“…Mitchell (2020) reports that students are missing more days of school more easily, which contributes to chronic absenteeism. Xie et al (2020) also discuss drawbacks of online learning. They highlight network instability and technological constraints, a lack of a sense of belonging and connectedness, the presence of distractions, and a lack of engagement as major drawbacks.…”

“…Additionally, while school closures and the last-minute shift to distance, remote, or hybrid learning has been linked to severely slowing the spread of the coronavirus to school aged children, teachers, and their families,4 the closures also accelerated the "digital transformation" of schooling. Planning wise, school closures and the "digital transformation" of schooling happened without much notice, expertise, or preparedness, at the school level (Iivari et al, 2020, p. 2;Walters, 2020). According to Greenberg (2020), school culture and experience with technology were the strongest predictors of a successful transition to remote learning at 50 schools in a California nonprofit portfolio.5 Digital tools became more than in-person learning add-ons.…”

“…However, before getting more strategic with their uses of technology, teachers and schools had to ensure students had computers and internet access. Access to online classes has been a major barrier for low-income students of color across the country given limited access to resources such as reliable internet connections, laptops, remote/at-home working guardians, and school funding (Casserly & Stewart, 2020;Iivari et al, 2020;Mitchell, 2020;Walters, 2020). For working class families of color, these resource conditions are actively created and exacerbated by structural economic and educational antagonisms (Walters, 2020).…”

“…Access to online classes has been a major barrier for low-income students of color across the country given limited access to resources such as reliable internet connections, laptops, remote/at-home working guardians, and school funding (Casserly & Stewart, 2020;Iivari et al, 2020;Mitchell, 2020;Walters, 2020). For working class families of color, these resource conditions are actively created and exacerbated by structural economic and educational antagonisms (Walters, 2020). In August, Walters (2020) reported 7 million children in the U.S. were without internet access and that there was dwindling student attendance in online classes.…”