Politics and the pandemic are likely to accelerate the much-discussed income inequality gap.

Education as a constant has been disrupted in both developed and developing countries and the pandemic is highlighting the digital gap within and across societies. Technology is embedded in economies and everyday life, yet it remains out of reach for several segments of society when accessing formal education.

From a longer-term perspective, political paralysis – overhauling government policies, reforming and shaping accessibility to education systems is likely to have a negative impact on future productivity and growth outcomes unless education delivery methods are revamped.
Some developed countries, with suitable technological conditions and capabilities are struggling to deliver educational output in a cohesive manner across the public and private sector institutions.

In developing countries, technology infrastructure shortcomings: hardware and bandwidth at national level are critical to support digital access. At household level, affordability of technology tools and personal space for students to devote time to learning, unfortunately is in short supply in many parts of the world today. News coverage of Covid-19 impact on school closures in remote parts of Zimbabwe hit home the disparate conditions – students crowd around a battery-operated transistor radio to listen to government broadcast English language lessons.

Interruption in delivering formal education and differing capacities in facilitating technology enabled remote learning tools is very likely to have profound impact on nurturing human capital. In a globalized world, the current unsettling environment could potentially widen the societal, inter generational, knowledge and skills gap. The potential impact on less developed countries is likely to be far reaching. Due to lack of a formal learning environment, children are likely to be pulled out of school and absorbed into the informal economy to support the family network.

In an era of digital ‘creative disruption’, governments in partnership with organisations and entrepreneurs should leverage the unforeseen opportunity presented by the pandemic – re-engineer the current educational methods, systems, and techniques to deliver relevant education, skills, and training. A collaborative approach is required to formulate appropriate policies to enhance livelihood outcomes by narrowing the education and digital gaps.

I pen this note by extrapolating from personal experience. During my distance learning journey over the past 4- 5 years at a reputable UK university, there have been no enhancements to the digital learning tools and methods, especially when interacting with lecturers and fellow students, spread far and wide from California to Kabul. Over the past few months, conducting desk-based research, collaborating with institutions and organizations in Nepal also provided an insight into the digital technology challenges facing developing nations.