Smart Learning Institute

The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is making the stark digital divide in education more apparent than ever as children around the world try to learn remotely, new data shows.

The United Nations’ education agency UNESCO released figures from the International Telecommunication Union that were collected by the Teacher Task Force, an international coalition of teachers, on Tuesday.

At least 1.5 billion students and 63 million primary and secondary teachers are affected by school closures in the wake of the pandemic in 191 countries. The data revealed that half of all students, nearly 830 million children, who are not currently attending school due to stay-at-home orders, do not have access to a computer. More than 40% do not have internet access at home. 

Education advocates say the disparity is a major threat to education. 

"This is going to mean that low-income and disadvantaged students fall further behind their more advantaged peers," Brian A. Jacob, economics professor at the University of Michigan, who is not affiliated with UNESCO, told Global Citizen.

"This is not unique to COVID. In any natural disaster that disrupts standard social service systems, including education, the disadvantaged are going to be hurt disproportionately because they have fewer other resources to call on," he added.