Kids Today: Remote Education in the time of COVID-19

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how COVID-19-induced remote education impacted high school students in Colombia, highlighting the critical role of internet access and socioeconomic factors on academic performance.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on the effects of technology access and demographic factors on student performance during remote learning in Colombia.

Findings

Internet access significantly influences academic outcomes.

Rural and ethnic minority students face greater challenges.

Limited improvements in technology access hinder performance gains.

Abstract

With the recent COVID-19 breakup, it became necessary to implement remote classes in schools and universities to safeguard health and life. However, many students (teachers and parents, also) face great difficulties accessing and staying in class due to technology limitations, affecting their education. Using several nationally representative datasets in Colombia, this article documents how the academic performance of students in their final high school year is affected due to technologies, aggregated by municipalities. We conclude that internet access strongly affects these results, and little improvement on the internet/computer access will reflect better academic performance. Under these conditions, belonging to an ethnic group or high rurality (non-geographic centralized municipalities) has a negative impact. Policy implications are discussed.