The Effect of Digital Technology on Educational Inequality in Ghana: Evidence from Three Rounds of the Ghana Living Standards Survey
Despite a dramatic rise in mobile phone and internet ownership in Ghana between 2005 and 2017, aggregate educational inequality increased because digital access alone was insufficient to offset broader structural barriers, although the equalizing effect of these technologies has strengthened over time and now depends on the joint adoption of both devices.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer
In the modern world, education is widely understood as the foundation for a better life, a path that lifts individuals out of poverty and strengthens entire nations. For decades, governments and international organizations have worked to ensure that every child, regardless of where they are born or how much money their family has, can attend school. Yet, despite these efforts, a stubborn gap remains: in many places, the quality and quantity of education a person receives still depend heavily on their background. Recently, a new force has entered this landscape: digital technology. The hope has been that the rapid spread of mobile phones and the internet would act as a great equalizer, giving the poorest students the same access to information and learning tools as the wealthy. This idea rests on a simple premise: if knowledge is available to everyone through a screen, the playing field should level out. But in the real world, technology does not always work as neatly as theory predicts. Sometimes, the very tools meant to bridge gaps can inadvertently widen them, depending on who gets to use them and how they are used.
A team of researchers set out to test this dynamic in Ghana, a country that has seen a dramatic transformation in its digital landscape over the last two decades. Between 2005 and 2017, the number of households owning a mobile phone surged from just 18 percent to nearly 90 percent, and internet access grew from a rare luxury to a feature in more than half of all homes. The researchers, drawing on three massive national surveys that track the lives of thousands of Ghanaian families, asked a straightforward but difficult question: did this explosion of digital access actually reduce the inequality in education among these families? To answer this, they did not just look at who had a phone; they measured the spread of schooling within each household. They calculated how much the years of schooling varied between the adults living in the same house, creating a clear picture of whether education was becoming more evenly distributed or if some families were still pulling further ahead than others.
The story the data tells is more complex than a simple success or failure. In the early years of the study, around 2005, owning a mobile phone was a powerful force for equality. At that time, when very few people had access to technology, having a phone was strongly linked to lower educational inequality within a household. It seemed that the device was helping to level the playing field. However, as time passed and mobile phones became nearly universal, the story changed. By 2012, the simple act of owning a phone no longer guaranteed an equalizing effect; in some cases, it was even associated with higher inequality. The researchers found that the benefits of technology were not automatic. Instead, the true power to reduce educational gaps emerged only when a household possessed both a mobile phone and internet access together. By 2017, the data showed that it was this combination—the joint holding of both technologies—that was most strongly linked to more equal educational outcomes within families. The internet, in particular, became a stronger force for equality as it became more common, but only when paired with the mobile device.
Despite these positive signs for households that had both technologies, the researchers discovered a surprising and somewhat troubling trend at the national level. Even though digital access expanded dramatically and its ability to reduce inequality within families grew stronger over time, the overall gap in education across the entire country did not shrink. In fact, the average measure of educational inequality among adults in Ghana remained flat between 2005 and 2012 and then actually rose by 2017. This means that while digital tools were helping to narrow gaps for those who had them, other powerful forces were pushing the overall situation in the opposite direction. The study suggests that the benefits of digital inclusion were not strong enough on their own to overcome deep-seated structural issues, such as the vast differences in educational opportunities between the north and south of the country, or between rural and urban areas. These structural disparities, rooted in geography and long-standing economic divides, proved to be far more persistent than the rapid spread of technology.
The findings offer a nuanced lesson for policymakers and anyone interested in the future of education. The research indicates that simply handing out devices or promising internet access is not a magic solution to educational inequality. The data shows that the relationship between technology and education is not static; it evolves as the technology spreads. In the beginning, a phone was enough to make a difference. Later, the combination of a phone and the internet became the key. But the study also makes it clear that digital inclusion is not a substitute for broader investments. To truly close the educational gap in Ghana, and likely in other developing nations, digital access must be paired with serious improvements in school infrastructure, teacher deployment, and support for the most disadvantaged regions. The technology is a powerful tool, but it is not a standalone cure. It works best when it is part of a larger, integrated strategy that addresses the deep roots of inequality, ensuring that the digital revolution lifts everyone up, rather than just those who are already close to the starting line.
Drowning in papers in your field?
Get daily digests of the most novel papers matching your research keywords — with technical summaries, in your language.