Less Access To Technology & Digital Teaching Skills Is Widening Learning Gap Among Rural Students: Report

Rural students are facing double inequality as they have less access to technology and less access to teaching skills as compared to the students of urban areas. Also, rural teachers have less access to digital learning technologies and stable internet connection than urban teachers, revealed a recent global survey by Capgemini. 

The Report “Future-ready Education: Empowering Secondary School Students With Digital Skills” highlighted that the urban-rural divide in access to digital technologies and the internet is wider. Globally, the share of internet users in urban areas is twice as high as in rural areas. 

Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills, OECD said, “Disparities in education is a phenomenon that we have observed for a very long time and predates technology. Social background, gender and geography – they all leave their footprint on educational outcomes. Technology, however, is an amplifier and accelerator in this. As an example, during the pandemic, students who were well-off, who had experience with technology or who had good access to it, were empowered in their learning. Other students were left behind. In the future, we must close these gaps very early in the educational journey, because any later is an uphill struggle.”

The study claimed, “In 2020 digital divide research shows the cost is a significant driver of why rural populations are offline.” 

Current research reveals a similar divide in education, with rural teachers the most likely to lack access to digital tools and a good internet connection. Survey shows that 75 per cent of urban teachers say their school has access to sufficient digital learning technologies and 75 per cent say that it has good internet connectivity, compared to only 47 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively, of rural teachers (see Figure 1).

Rural schools do not prioritise the teaching of digital skills:

The report shed light on how rural teachers have different points of view compared to urban teachers on teaching digital skills. It quoted, “It is not surprising that there is a difference in teachers’ views of their school’s priority in teaching digital skills. Teachers in rural areas are less likely to believe digital-, data-, and media literacy is a priority for their school than their peers in suburban and urban areas. For example, 67 per cent of rural teachers say digital literacy is important, compared to 81 per cent of suburban and 94 per cent of urban teachers (see Figure 2).

Rural teachers are teaching digital skills less frequently than urban teachers:

Survey also revealed that urban teachers are more confident in teaching digital skills than rural teachers (85 per cent versus 51 per cent). It is not surprising, therefore, that teachers in rural areas teach digital skills less often than their urban and suburban peers. On average, 49 per cent of rural teachers say they frequently teach digital skills versus 73 per cent in urban areas (see Figure 3). 

The majority (71 per cent) of rural teachers in our survey say their school does not have a formal digital skills curriculum and they must incorporate digital skills into their lessons independently.

Rural students do not feel they have the digital skills required for the workforce

According to research, this urban–rural digital divide in terms of the priority given to digital skills and the amount of time devoted to teaching them is reflected on how well equipped students are with the digital skills needed for the workforce.

Fewer teachers in rural areas than in urban and suburban locations believe their students have these skills (40 per cent of rural teachers compared to 83 per cent of teachers in urban areas). Similarly, a lower share of 16–18-year-old students in rural areas say they are equipped with the digital skills necessary for success compared to their urban and suburban counterparts (see Figure 4).

Female rural students are at the greatest disadvantage compared to their urban peers:

The survey also points out that the urban–rural divide is more marked among female students. Of female students in rural areas, 37 per cent say they have the required digital skills for the workforce compared to 62 per cent of their peers in urban areas (see Figure 5). This discrepancy is significantly smaller for their male counterparts in our survey.