Socioeconomic Status and Academic Achievement among Students at Pangasinan State University amidst the Digital Divide in the New Age of Teaching and Learning

The new age of education is shaped by the ongoing growth of digital technologies, changing what it means to be a student today. With digital tools and online platforms now a big part of education, students need to have strong digital skills and experiences. Unfortunately, this change has also magnified the dilemmas like inequalities, especially the differences in socioeconomic status that affect students’ access to education and their success. At Pangasinan State University, many students come from different economic backgrounds. Understanding how socioeconomic status (SES) affects academic achievement, especially with the digital divide, is both a challenge and opportunity to overcome barriers and promote fair and equitable education. Through quantitative methods, including a descriptive-correlational design, the study surveyed 287 learners from College of Teacher Education. This study sought to describe the learners’ demographics, determining their estimated GPA, exploring the challenges due to digital divide, and identifying relationships between learners’ socioeconomic background, challenges, and academic achievement. Findings revealed that out of 287 respondents their parents primarily being high school graduates, deceased or jobless (fathers), and homemakers (mothers), earning less than P12,082, with most families belong to medium-sized households (consisting of 6-10 members), having 1-5 enrolled siblings, owning 1-5 gadgets, and residing on countryside area. Challenges encompassed availability of digital devices, internet access, and financial constraints, with significant correlations between profiles, challenges, and academic achievement. Recommendations advocate for support inclusive teaching methods and policies targeting learner profiles or socioeconomic background and nurturing partnership between parents and teachers, to create a more equitable education system regardless of students’ socioeconomic status.