With massive income inequality on both a community-to-community and country-to-country level, the quality of education differs substantially between wealthier and lower-income communities. Bridging this cap is incredibly difficult without proper funding. However, access to the internet and portable technology is helping change this. For rural parts of developing countries, especially such communities in Africa, educational resources are severely underfunded. This severely handicaps the quality of the education received by students at these schools. Different groups are working to narrow the gap on education quality. These groups are doing this by investing in technology that would provide schools in these areas access to the internet. With the internet, the students are then able to take advantage of educational resources that they otherwise would not have access to. Several studies have been published on this, pointing to how technology can help boost student learning in these rural or other disadvantaged area.

Some technologies that have helped bridge the education gap for these communities include satellites, durable laptops, and many other electronics. For example, in Ghana the Valley Foundation and Dubai Cares are working with the Ghanaian Ministry of Education to provide several schools with projectors, satellite dishes, solar-powered computers, modern electronic blackboards, and many other electronics. In Kenya, Ushahidi and Crowdmap have developed a robust laptop called the BRCK. The BRCK is designed with limited electricity and internet connection in mind.

While these technologies will help provide a better education to students in rural or otherwise disadvantaged areas, these technologies also provide governments with reasons to restrict additional funding to these schools. In order to completely address the educational gap, both government funding and technology are likely needed to ensure students everywhere can get access to a quality education.

Source:

Livingston, Steven. “Classroom technologies narrow education gap in developing countries”. Brookings. 2016 Aug. 23, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2016/08/23/classroom-technologies-narrow-education-gap-in-developing-countries/