IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ukm/jlekon/v55y2021i3p103-112.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digital Divide in Education during COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Surianshah, Sarimah

    (Faculty of Science and Natural Resources Universiti Malaysia Sabah Jalan UMS, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah MALAYSIA.)

Abstract

This study aims to examine the impact of digital divide on student outcomes using primary data. We used a sample of 233 secondary school students in the rural area of Sabah, Malaysia, during the COVID-19 pandemic from October to November 2020, about six months into student mandatory online learning. A random sampling method was employed in data collection using online questionnaire. This study adopted the two-step least squares method. We specifically measured students’ outcomes based on their perspectives of online class effectiveness and student financial constraints to attend these classes. The findings proved the existence of digital divide among students in rural areas. Specifically, the students’ low level of online learning attendance produced positive and statistically significant effect on their perspective of the effectiveness of online learning. In addition, the availability of digital devices at home significantly influenced student decision to take part-time jobs in order to help them purchase these devices to enable them attend classes. The findings suggest that there exist digital access barriers among students in rural areas during the pandemic. The study implies that the government or policymakers need to effect strategic intervention such as digital endowment to ensure that the digitally disadvantaged students are not left behind their peers.

Suggested Citation

  • Surianshah, Sarimah, 2021. "Digital Divide in Education during COVID-19 Pandemic," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 55(3), pages 103-112.
    • Handle: RePEc:ukm:jlekon:v:55:y:2021:i:3:p:103-112
    DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/JEM-2021-5503-07
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ukm.my/jem/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/jeko_553-7.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/JEM-2021-5503-07?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    2. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    3. Stock, James H & Wright, Jonathan H & Yogo, Motohiro, 2002. "A Survey of Weak Instruments and Weak Identification in Generalized Method of Moments," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(4), pages 518-529, October.
    4. repec:aer:wpaper:173 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Brian E. Whitacre & Bradford F. Mills, 2007. "Infrastructure and the Rural—urban Divide in High-speed Residential Internet Access," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 30(3), pages 249-273, July.
    6. Wu, De-Min, 1974. "Alternative Tests of Independence between Stochastic Regressors and Disturbances: Finite Sample Results," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 42(3), pages 529-546, May.
    7. Aucejo, Esteban M. & French, Jacob & Ugalde Araya, Maria Paola & Zafar, Basit, 2020. "The impact of COVID-19 on student experiences and expectations: Evidence from a survey," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    8. Cassandra M.D. Hart & Elizabeth Friedmann & Michael Hill, 2018. "Online Course-taking and Student Outcomes in California Community Colleges," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 13(1), pages 42-71, Winter.
    9. Gabriela Guerrero & Juan Leon & Mayli Zapata & Santiago Cueto, 2013. "Getting teachers back to the classroom. A systematic review on what works to improve teacher attendance in developing countries," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 466-488, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Doko Tchatoka, Firmin & Dufour, Jean-Marie, 2020. "Exogeneity tests, incomplete models, weak identification and non-Gaussian distributions: Invariance and finite-sample distributional theory," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 218(2), pages 390-418.
    2. Firmin DOKO TCHATOKA & Jean-Marie DUFOUR, 2016. "Exogeneity Tests, Incomplete Models, Weak Identification and Non-Gaussian Distributions : Invariance and Finite-Sample Distributional Theory," Cahiers de recherche 14-2016, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ.
    3. Alston Lee J. & Mueller Bernardo, 2018. "Priests, Conflicts and Property Rights: the Impacts on Tenancy and Land Use in Brazil," Man and the Economy, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 1-26, June.
    4. Marie Bjørneby & Annette Alstadsæter & Kjetil Telle, 2018. "Collusive tax evasion by employers and employees. Evidence from a randomized fi eld experiment in Norway," Discussion Papers 891, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    5. Guo, Bing & Pérez-Castrillo, David & Toldrà-Simats, Anna, 2019. "Firms’ innovation strategy under the shadow of analyst coverage," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(2), pages 456-483.
    6. Santiago Budría & Pablo Swedberg, 2019. "The impact of multilingualism on host language acquisition," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 46(4), pages 741-766, November.
    7. Azémar, Céline & Desbordes, Rodolphe & Wooton, Ian, 2020. "Is international tax competition only about taxes? A market-based perspective," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 891-912.
    8. Thang Dang, 2018. "Do the more educated utilize more health care services? Evidence from Vietnam using a regression discontinuity design," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 277-299, September.
    9. Manuel Denzer, 2019. "Estimating Causal Effects in Binary Response Models with Binary Endogenous Explanatory Variables - A Comparison of Possible Estimators," Working Papers 1916, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    10. John V. Winters, 2020. "In-State College Enrollment and Later Life Location Decisions," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 55(4), pages 1400-1426.
    11. Maclean, Johanna Catherine & Hill, Terrence D., 2015. "Leaving school in an economic downturn and self-esteem across early and middle adulthood," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 1-12.
    12. Bjørneby, Marie & Alstadsæter, Annette & Telle, Kjetil, 2021. "Limits to third-party reporting: Evidence from a randomized field experiment in Norway," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    13. Richard Adjei Dwumfour & Eric Fosu Oteng-Abayie & Emmanuel Kwasi Mensah, 2022. "Bank efficiency and the bank lending channel: new evidence," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 63(3), pages 1489-1542, September.
    14. Eugen Dimant & Tim Krieger & Daniel Meierrieks, 2024. "Paying Them to Hate US: The Effect of US Military Aid on Anti-American Terrorism, 1968–2018," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(663), pages 2772-2802.
    15. Jeffrey Smith & Arthur Sweetman, 2016. "Viewpoint: Estimating the causal effects of policies and programs," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 49(3), pages 871-905, August.
    16. Shivaji Mukherjee, 2018. "Colonial Origins of Maoist Insurgency in India," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 62(10), pages 2232-2274, November.
    17. Lucas Hafner & Harald Tauchmann & Ansgar Wübker, 2021. "Does moderate weight loss affect subjective health perception in obese individuals? Evidence from field experimental data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(4), pages 2293-2333, October.
    18. Minetti, Raoul & Murro, Pierluigi & Paiella, Monica, 2015. "Ownership structure, governance, and innovation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 165-193.
    19. P. Dorian Owen, 2017. "Evaluating Ingenious Instruments for Fundamental Determinants of Long-Run Economic Growth and Development," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-33, September.
    20. Pilařová, Tereza & Kandakov, Alexander, 2017. "The impact of remittances on school attendance: The evidence from the Republic of Moldova," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 11-16.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Covid-19; digital divide; government intervention; rural area; student outcomes;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C3 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables
    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ukm:jlekon:v:55:y:2021:i:3:p:103-112. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Muhammad Asri Abd Ghani (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feukmmy.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.