Despite incredible advances of humanity, inequality, worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, remains an unresolved issue at a global level. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), established in 2000 by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, seek to address those inequities through a series of objectives to be reached by the…

Information and communication technology (ICT) has become an important tool for school systems as they seek to enhance education and make it more efficient. This has become all the more apparent and urgent with the COVID-19 pandemic. But what degree of access do students from different socio-economic backgrounds have to ICT-based quality…

Significant progress has been made to close gender gaps in education over the last 25 years. Nevertheless, gender inequalities persist and education remains elusive for many girls. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) estimates that 11.2 million girls and young women may drop out or not have access to…

Education systems in under-resourced environments face several challenges, some of them exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. A possible way to address some of the challenges is to apply information and communication technologies. However, effectively integrating technology into education systems is a complex task. In this paper, factors…

At the height of nationwide lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, up to 1.6 billion children were affected by school closures, causing the largest mass disruption of education in modern history. This joint report by UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) presents new insights into children and young people's access to digital…

As COVID-19 upends lives and livelihoods worldwide, the rapid growth of online learning is challenging the relevance of traditional higher education systems. Although efforts to promote and enhance the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in higher education in the Asia-Pacific have rapidly increased, progress is far from…

This working paper identifies OECD countries' interests in digital innovation in education by analysing their policy papers on digital education. Many OECD countries have adopted a specific strategy on digital education, or integrated the topic in a generic strategy on digital innovation as such. The ideas that are expressed in the strategies…

The aim of this study of ICT policy in K-12 education in Sudan is to investigate the status of planning for technology in education and then determine how the advantage of ICT can best serve the educational system and improve educational outcomes. The study examined two plans for ICT in education, addition to an interview with the educational…

The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) is an international organisation dedicated to building a better world through higher education. With over 500 member universities across 50 countries, our international network spans more than 10 million students and over a million academic and professional staff. In May 2020, the ACU undertook a…

At any one time, about 300 million children of school going age are not in school. Experience indicates that when schooling is disrupted, whether by a pandemic, a natural disaster or other reasons, not all children return to the classroom. In addition, most countries have growing numbers of young people who have not completed schooling, or not…

Digital technologies offer immense potential for transforming teacher learning and the delivery of professional development activities throughout teachers' careers. As the COVID-19 pandemic has made face-to­-face professional learning challenging or impossible for teachers to attend in many contexts, online professional learning options for…

The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) conducted a digital engagement survey in May 2020, designed to capture the short-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the working habits of staff, students, and university leaders. Results provide a snapshot of individual levels of digital engagement, changing attitudes and behaviours, and the…

School closures during COVID-19 led to an unprecedented global experiment in the delivery of remote learning. This report seeks to assess what lessons can be drawn from experiences of remote learning during COVID-19 in K-12 education, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries. It focuses on the period from March 2020 to October 2021 and…

A substantial amount of money is spent on technology by schools, families and policymakers with the hope of improving educational outcomes. This paper explores the theoretical and empirical literature on the impacts of technology on educational outcomes. The literature focuses on two primary contexts in which technology may be used for educational…

The COVID-19 pandemic is severely affecting education systems across the world. While schools are closed (or partially closed), simulations across different countries suggest that learning gains previously achieved by students will be partly lost. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds have suffered these shocks even more and can be at a higher…