Digital Divide or Digital Provide? Technology, Time Use, and Learning Loss during COVID-19

Resource type
Journal Article
Authors/contributors
Title
Digital Divide or Digital Provide? Technology, Time Use, and Learning Loss during COVID-19
Abstract
COVID-19 school closure has caused a worldwide shift towards technology-aided home schooling. Given widespread poverty in developing countries, this has raised concerns over new forms of learning inequalities. Using nationwide data on primary and secondary school children in slum and rural households in Bangladesh, we examine how learning time at home during the early months of school closure varies by access to technology at home. Data confirms a significant socio-economic and gender divide in access to TV, smartphone, computer, and internet among rural households. However, the analysis of daily time use data shows only a modest return to a technology in terms of boosting learning time at home. The learning-grade gradient is shallow and insensitive to TV, smartphone, and computer access at home. We also find no evidence that technology access per se helps learning by boosting time spent in online schooling and private supplementary coaching/tutoring. While technology access matters in households where parents act as home tutors, the magnitude of such a complementary effect are not large. The results imply a loss of out-of-school learning time during school closure even in households with technology access. We consider additional hypotheses relating to institutional and socio-economic barriers to home-based learning in developing countries.
Publication
The Journal of Development Studies
Volume
58
Issue
10
Pages
1934-1957
Date
2022-10-03
ISSN
0022-0388
Short Title
Digital Divide or Digital Provide?
Accessed
02/12/2022, 16:03
Library Catalogue
Taylor and Francis+NEJM
Extra
Publisher: Routledge _eprint: https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2022.2094253
Citation
Asadullah, M. N., & Bhattacharjee, A. (2022). Digital Divide or Digital Provide? Technology, Time Use, and Learning Loss during COVID-19. The Journal of Development Studies, 58(10), 1934–1957. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2022.2094253