Panel Paper:
Access to Technology and Student Academic Achievement
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
It is well-documented that there exists a strong and positive relationship between school inputs and education outcomes (Das et al., 2013). Past academic literature on education has focused on the linkage between schooling inputs and cognitive outcomes among school-age children (Hanushek, 2006; Rivkin et al., 2005). Although prior literature has highlighted the significance of technology as an important educational input (Sawada et al., 2017), there exists a dearth of rigorous evidence on the impact of access to technology on student academic achievement in a developing country context. This paper takes advantage of a nationwide household survey to explore the role of technology in improving learning outcomes of children.
The objective of this study is to assess the linkage between access to technology and student academic achievement in a developing country setting. Using data from a large nationwide survey of schools, students, families and teachers collected by the Ministry of Education in the years 2004-2005, this study employs ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model and detailed qualitative literature review to evaluate the impact of technological inputs on test scores of children. The study relies on availability of electricity, radio, television and computer to create an index for access to technology. The study also takes advantage of ArcGIS to explore the spatial variation in student academic performances. This further sheds evidence on existing socio-economic disparities and possible policy solutions.
My focus on Nepal is unique and important to the existing literature on education policy. First, Nepal has witnessed dismal student achievement profiles in spite of a high net enrollment rate of 94.5%. Recent estimates from the Central Bureau of Statistics show that only 43.92% of the students successfully passed the national level examinations. Second, this study is broadly related to the literature on low correlation between school spending and student learning outcomes. Given that Nepal spends 4.5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on education, policy makers have advocated for an alternative policy intervention. This study fills the existing gap in literature and delves into the role of technology in improving student achievement in the developing world. Finally, the study takes advantage of both quantitative and qualitative analyses to strengthen the methodological rigor and contribute to better policy-making in the education sector.
References
Das, Jishnu, Stefan Dercon, James Habyarimana, Pramila Krishnan, Karthik Muralidharan, and Venkatesh Sundararaman. School inputs, household substitution, and test scores. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 5(2):29–57, 2013
Hanushek, Eric A. School resources. Handbook of the Economics of Education, 2:865–908, 2006.
Rivkin, Steven G., Eric A Hanushek, and John F Kain. Teachers, schools, and academic achievement. Econometrica, 73(2):417–458, 2005.
Sawada, Yasuyuki, Minhaj Mahmud, Mai Seki, An Le, and Hikaru Kawarazaki. "Individualized Self-learning Program to Improve Primary Education: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment in Bangladesh." (2017).
