Leveraging information and communication technologies (ICT) to enhance education equity, quality, and efficiency: case studies of Bangladesh and Nepal

ABSTRACT

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have had significant impacts on many sectors in today’s knowledge economy. In developing and emerging countries, ICT have enhanced equity, quality, and efficiency in the education sector. However, the adoption of ICT in the South Asian countries’ education sector has not been at scale and its impacts have been limited. There are several gaps and issues that are hindering the wider adoption of ICT and limiting its impacts in the education sector. Through the case studies of the adoption of ICT for education in Bangladesh and Nepal, this paper examines the gaps and issues to be addressed in order to better leverage ICT to enhance education equity, quality, and efficiency. This discussion is guided by the ICT in the education framework that has been developed by the authors, and could provide insights into the state of ICT in education and offer strategies to better leverage ICT for the education sector of other countries in South Asia and the region.

KEYWORDS:

• ICT in education
• equity
• quality
• efficiency
• Bangladesh
• Nepal

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Authors contribution

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by LIM Cher Ping, RA Sungsup, CHIN Brian, and WANG Tianchong. The first draft of the manuscript was written by LIM Cher Ping and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Compliance with ethical standards

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was received for this study and the authorship of this paper.