Education technology has moved from broadcast media to internet platforms, mobile devices, and artificial intelligence. These education technology statistics show the scale of that change, while also measuring the persistent gaps in electricity, equipment, teacher preparation, and policy.
Contents
- How digital education has expanded
- Access to devices, electricity, and connectivity
- What schools and teachers are prepared to do
- Online learning and digital skills
- Equity, safety, and effective use
- AI, cybersecurity, and district priorities
How digital education has expanded
The history of education technology is longer than the web. According to UNESCO GEM 2023, information and communication technology has been applied in education for 100 years, dating from the popularization of radio in the 1920s. Digital technology, in the narrower modern sense, has been used in education for the past 40 years.
The scale of participation in online learning has changed quickly. UNESCO GEM 2023 reports that the number of students in massive open online courses rose from zero in 2012 to at least 220 million in 2021. The same source recorded 20 million daily active users on Duolingo in 2023 and 244 million Wikipedia page views per day in 2021.
Connectivity expanded alongside these services, but not uniformly. The share of internet users worldwide increased from 16% in 2005 to 66% in 2022, according to UNESCO GEM 2023. A separate UNESCO GEM 2023 measure says two in three people globally used the internet in 2022. These figures describe worldwide use, not universal access to devices, reliable power, or effective educational content.
Technology can also support education through media that do not depend on a personal computer. Interactive radio instruction is used in nearly 40 countries, according to UNESCO GEM 2023. In Nigeria, radio instruction combined with print and audiovisual materials reached nearly 80% of nomads. Mexico’s Telesecundaria programme increased secondary school enrolment by 21%.
Systematic reviews covering the two decades before UNESCO GEM 2023 found small-to-medium positive effects of technology on learning compared with traditional instruction. The result is an average finding across studies, not a guarantee that any particular device, platform, or lesson will improve outcomes.
Access to devices, electricity, and connectivity
The infrastructure figures explain why adoption rates can hide major differences in learning conditions. In 2021, almost 9% of the global population lacked access to electricity. More than 70% of people in rural sub-Saharan Africa lacked access to electricity in the same year, according to UNESCO GEM 2023. Globally, one in four primary schools did not have electricity.
A 2018 study across Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Myanmar, Nepal, and Niger found that 31% of public schools were on grid, 9% were off grid, and only 16% had an uninterrupted power supply. These are different measures: being connected to a grid does not mean that power is continuous.
Home access is also uneven. In 2020, 46% of households globally had a computer at home, according to UNESCO GEM 2023. School computer availability for pedagogical purposes rose by education level: 47% of primary schools, 62% of lower secondary schools, and 76% of upper secondary schools had computers for that purpose.
| Measure | Result | Period or geography |
|---|---|---|
| Households with a computer at home | 46% | Global, 2020 |
| Primary schools with computers for pedagogical purposes | 47% | Global measure |
| Lower secondary schools with computers for pedagogical purposes | 62% | Global measure |
| Upper secondary schools with computers for pedagogical purposes | 76% | Global measure |
| Lower secondary schools connected to the internet for pedagogical purposes | About 50% | Global, 2022 |
About 50% of the world’s lower secondary schools were connected to the internet for pedagogical purposes in 2022, according to UNESCO GEM 2023. In the 2018 PISA, Brazil and Morocco had at most 10 computers per 100 students, while Luxembourg had 160 computers per 100 students. The PISA comparison is school computer availability for the participating 15-year-old student population; it should not be read as a global average.
In the 2022 PISA, the OECD average was about 0.8 computer available at school for every 15-year-old student and about 0.4 tablet device or e-book reader for every 15-year-old student, according to OECD PISA 2022 Results Volume II. On average across OECD countries and in 41 education systems, socio-economically disadvantaged schools were more likely than advantaged schools to lack or have poor-quality digital resources.
What schools and teachers are prepared to do
Access to equipment is only one part of educational technology capacity. In the 2018 PISA, 65% of 15-year-old students in OECD countries were in schools whose principals said teachers had the technical and pedagogical skills to integrate digital devices into instruction. In the same assessment, 54% were in schools with an effective online learning support platform. Both measures come from UNESCO GEM 2023 and refer to school environments, not individual skill tests.
Teacher preparation remains incomplete. Only 43% of lower secondary school teachers in the 2018 TALIS felt prepared to use technology for teaching after training, according to UNESCO GEM 2023. In the 2018 ICILS, 78% of teachers were not confident in using technology for assessment.
Policy frameworks are more widespread than confidence. About half of education systems worldwide had ICT standards for teachers in a competency framework, training framework, development plan, or strategy. One quarter had legislation requiring teachers to be trained in technology through initial or in-service training. At the same time, 84% of education systems had strategies for in-service teacher professional development and 72% had strategies for pre-service teacher education in technology.
Collaboration can happen through familiar consumer tools. About 80% of teachers surveyed in the Caribbean belonged to professional WhatsApp groups, and 44% used instant messaging to collaborate at least once a week, according to UNESCO GEM 2023.
OECD PISA 2022 Results Volume II adds operational measures. On average across OECD countries, 59% of students attended schools where teachers had sufficient time to prepare lessons integrating digital devices, and 59% attended schools with sufficient qualified technical assistance staff. Fifty-five percent attended schools where teachers were offered incentives to integrate digital devices into teaching. These figures indicate that a device rollout does not automatically provide time, support, or institutional encouragement.
Online learning and digital skills
Digital learning depends on learners’ ability to evaluate information as well as operate software. In the 2018 PISA, 5% of 15-year-olds with the strongest reading skills were at risk of being misled by a typical phishing email. The corresponding figure for students with the weakest reading skills was 24%, according to UNESCO GEM 2023.
Programming access also shows a gender gap. Across 50 countries, 6.5% of males could write a computer program compared with 3.2% of females. UNESCO GEM 2023 reports that in Belgium, Hungary, and Switzerland, no more than two women for every 10 men could program. In Albania, Malaysia, and Palestine, nine women for every 10 men could program.
Adult learning varies by education level and country. About one quarter of adults in European Union countries had acquired digital skills through a formalized educational institution. The share ranged from 16% in Italy to 40% in Sweden. In Europe, 18% of adults with tertiary education engaged in free online training or self-study to improve computer, software, or application use, compared with 9% of adults with upper secondary education.
The classroom environment also requires rules for attention and responsible use. On average across OECD countries in PISA 2022, 95% of students attended schools where teachers established rules for when students could use digital devices during lessons. Even where cell phone use was banned, 29% of students reported using a smartphone several times a day.
Equity, safety, and effective use
Emergency and remote learning exposed the difference between nominal connectivity and usable access. A 165-country survey reported by UNESCO GEM 2023 found that two in five teachers used their own devices during the pandemic. Almost one third of schools had only one device for education use.
The divide is visible in electricity, equipment, skills, and support at the same time. A school may have an internet connection but lack uninterrupted power; a teacher may have a device but not enough preparation time; and a student may reach an online service without having the reading or digital skills needed to assess its reliability.
District data from the CoSN 2024 State of EdTech District Leadership survey show that home broadband support also changed. In 2024, 31% of districts no longer provided any services to address student home broadband access, compared with 19% two years earlier. Hotspots for unconnected students fell from 69% of districts in 2022 to 49% in 2024.
Funding pressures affect continuity. In the same 2024 CoSN survey, 80% of districts had dedicated district-provided funds for devices, 54% for professional learning, and 41% for cybersecurity. Fourteen percent reported no dedicated technology funding. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said their states did not provide any dedicated technology funding; state funding was received by 21% of districts for cybersecurity, 20% for professional learning, and 13% for devices.
The ability to maintain existing systems was limited. Forty-six percent of districts were unable to sustain classroom technology refreshes other than devices, 41% were unable to sustain device access, 34% were unable to renew software licenses, and 18% were unable to sustain broadband access outside school, according to the CoSN 2024 State of EdTech District Leadership survey.
AI, cybersecurity, and district priorities
Artificial intelligence is now part of district technology planning, but implementation and governance are at different stages. In the CoSN 2024 State of EdTech District Leadership survey, 97% of districts saw benefits in how AI could positively impact education, while 35% reported having a generative AI initiative.
Policy coverage was less complete. Fifty-four percent of districts had no existing AI use policy, 31% said AI use fit within their current policies, and 9% had updated their acceptable use policy to address AI tools. These categories describe reported district policy status in the 2024 survey; they are not a forecast of future adoption.
Districts were also testing ways to identify AI-generated student work. Twenty percent used tools designed to detect AI-generated answers, while 38% were exploring AI-detection tools. The survey also recorded concerns: 63% of respondents were extremely or very concerned about AI-enabled cyberattacks, 49% were concerned about a lack of teacher training for integrating AI into instruction, 47% about new forms of cyberbullying, and 45% about the spread of false information.
Cybersecurity and well-being were already broad priorities. Ninety-nine percent of districts were taking measures to improve cybersecurity protections, and 93% were using technology solutions designed to address or improve student well-being. Single sign-on was the most fully implemented interoperability initiative, at 43% of districts.
Earlier U.S. school technology measures provide historical context. NCES data reported that 99% of full-time regular public school teachers had access to computers or the internet somewhere in their schools in 1999. Among teachers with access, 39% used computers or the internet a lot to create instructional materials and 34% used them a lot for administrative record keeping. Sixty-six percent reported using computers or the internet for instruction during class time; 41% assigned computer-applications work to a moderate or large extent, 31% assigned practice drills, and 30% assigned internet research.
The NCES historical measures also show the difference between availability and sufficiency. In the cited NCES data, 82% of public school teachers had a computer available at home and 63% had internet available at home. Twenty-seven percent said their school had a network they could use to access the internet from home, while 57% considered classroom technology sufficiently available. In 2009, 93% of computers located in classrooms had internet access every day, and 96% of computers that could be brought into classrooms had internet access every day.
Together, these figures describe education technology as an ecosystem: media and platforms, electricity and connectivity, devices and support, teacher practice and student skills, and rules for safety and responsible use. The measures come from different years, geographies, and surveys, so they are best read as indicators of particular conditions rather than as one directly comparable global score.