The role of information and communication technologies and access to electricity on education in Africa

Chinyere Ori Elom, Robert Ugochukwu Onyeneke, Hayford Mensah Ayerakwa, Richmond Atta-Ankomah, Eric Worlanyo Deffor, Chidebe Chijioke Uwaleke

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Access to quality education for all children is important for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals especially in Africa. However, information and communication technologies (ICTs) and access to electricity have continued to be burning issues hindering access to quality education in Africa. However, empirical evidence on the impact of ICTs and access to electricity on primary education in Africa is rare. This paper, therefore, investigates the impacts of information and communication technologies and access to electricity on the education of children in Africa. The study used rich data on primary school enrolment, education expenditure, access to electricity, fixed broadband subscriptions, fixed telephone subscriptions, mobile cellular subscriptions, and individuals using the internet in Africa obtained from the World Development Indicators. Leveraging on panel autoregressive distributed lag model, we find that fixed broadband subscriptions, mobile cellular subscriptions, individuals using the internet, and access to electricity exert significant impacts on school enrolment in Africa. We find from the Granger causality test result a unidirectional causality between school enrolment and mobile phone subscription. Furthermore, we identified bidirectional causalities between school enrolment and access to electricity, education expenditure, fixed telephone subscriptions, fixed broadband subscriptions, and individuals using the internet. We conclude that information and communication technologies improve education in Africa.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)15501-15532
Number of pages32
JournalEducation and Information Technologies
Volume29
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2024

Keywords

  • Access to electricity
  • Broadband use
  • Fixed telephone use
  • Internet access
  • Mobile cellular use
  • Panel data
  • School enrolment

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The role of information and communication technologies and access to electricity on education in Africa'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this