INTRODUCTION

UNESCO (2018) places a high premium on education since it is a fundamental human

right and the cornerstone of promoting world peace and sustainable development. The UNESCO

Education Sector, the United Nations' specialized agency for education, provides leadership in

education on a global and regional scale, enhances national educational systems, and uses

education to address current global concerns. The Education 2030 Agenda, a component of the

worldwide effort to eradicate poverty by reaching the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by

2030, is directed and coordinated by UNESCO, the United Nations' specialized agency for

education. The Education 2030 Framework for Action offers recommendations for carrying out

this ambitious goal and commitments because education is essential to achieving all of these

goals and has its own specific Goal 4 that aims to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality

education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all."

In an increasingly digital world, 3.6 billion people still lack access to the Internet. The

most vulnerable groups that lack access include typically minorities, people with disabilities,

indigenous peoples, and other disadvantaged groups, as well as women, children, and youth from

low socioeconomic backgrounds or who reside in violent or war-torn areas. Lack of Internet

access limits one's ability to access both the massive amount of online information and learn to

grow. In order to accomplish the 2030 Agenda goal of "Leaving no one behind," we must fight

to ensure that everyone, especially children and young people, has access to a safe and secure

online environment and has the digital skills necessary to learn and improve their life, UNESCO

(2020).
 How crucial Internet connectivity is to carrying out daily duties like working, studying,

and staying in touch with loved ones has become evident as a result of the COVID-19 situation.

Global disruptions had a disproportionately negative impact on children because they couldn't

complete their education without access to strong, dependable Internet. In order to make

connectivity more freely available, the nation must upgrade its infrastructure more than before.

In order to improve young people's access to education, their performance in it, their capacity to

make money, and the prosperity of their nations and communities, investments in high-quality

education are necessary. This is why improving school connectivity plans is also vital.

The core value of every technological revolution in history is to help humans overcome global

challenges and improve their well-being; and the success of the technological innovation can’t be

validated until it is adopted by the entire society, inclusively, as a public good. All countries and

individuals have been facing common global challenges in recent years, from climate change to

pandemics and military conflicts. As a consequence, in the education arena, setbacks are looming. The

response taken by all countries during the COVID-19 disruption suggests that the right to education has

become dependent on connectivity. This makes digital inclusion a societal and moral imperative, guided

by the humanistic approach. Promoting digital inclusion – namely ensuring equity, inclusion, and gender

equality in the access to and use of digital devices and connectivity – is the prerequisite for any national

ICT in education policy and masterplan. It must be the preconditional political commitment that will

guide the planning and deployment of ICT in education. It is the social responsibility of private IT

companies to make additional free and low-cost digital solutions available for digitally marginalized

groups, and to create applications as a public good to address various forms of disabilities, it is state

governance that should set up regulations and policies to guide the innovation towards digital inclusion,

and validate the applications that are permitted to be deployed in classrooms. ICT has been developing

rapidly, and iteratively updated ICT tools have been introduced into the education sector. Many of these
innovations are driven by commercial motivations, and should not be taken for granted as being

designed for the common good. Policy-makers should assess the capabilities and limitations of ICT from

two perspectives. First, they must take a generational view of the evolution of ICT, and conduct a robust

benefit-risk review of the emerging innovations to avoid missing historical opportunities brought about

by frontier technologies. Second, they need to carry out a critical review of the large range of digital

applications based on the principles of inclusion, humanism, and the fundamental needs of education

provision and management, as well as teachers and learners.

Promoting digital inclusion in education

In order to use ICT to aid national governments in addressing many of the issues with

education that appear to be intractable, such as the learning divide, prejudice, and gender

inequality, it is essential for everyone to have access to digital devices and internet connectivity.

The long-standing achievement gap can be closed with the help of technology in previously

unheard-of ways. If we are to uphold our promises to gender equality, non-discrimination in

education, and women's empowerment for sustainable development, then ICT application is

crucial.

As a result of the Covid-19 outbreak, institutions have experienced significant problems.

Regardless of their circumstances, educational needs, or prerequisites (Walgenbach, Compes,

and Lambrich 2019: 9, authors' translation), it is challenging to incorporate all learners in digital

learning. By starting with accessibility and related concepts like the digital divide and digital

inclusion, a research was conducted to gain a greater understanding of the problems that digital

teaching and learning must deal with. Even those students who have previously succeeded in

their studies may encounter challenges in online learning environments (e.g. technical equipment

is missing, lack of digital skills). While certain issues have become easier to solve, others have
grown more challenging. As an illustration, asynchronous online forms have helped to enhance

the balance between work and family life (Knoblich 2020; Hassel 2020). However, preliminary

data suggests that during the Covid-19 outbreak, students with additional responsibilities or

obligations (such as students with children) experience greater stress than other student groups.

Colleges and other higher education institutions have started delivering courses online to

reduce COVID-19-related delays in the delivery of education. Students are still having a lot of

issues with the online learning technique, though. Problems with Internet connections, expensive

mobile data plans, the quality and accessibility of devices, challenges with completing online

assignments and exams, maintaining a positive interaction between instructors and students, etc.

are some of the challenges that students encounter when attempting to access online lectures

(Duraku & Hoxha, 2020a).

An article published in UNHCR Asia Pacific (2020) stated that more than 1.5 billion

children and youth are affected by the COVID-19-related school closures, so there has been a

push to look into online and digital methods to offer continuity through virtual learning. Online

learning is the most recent type of education, involving the use of the Internet to access learning

materials, communicate with teachers and other students, and receive help while learning. It also

enables people to learn, find meaning in their lives, and develop in their careers (Martin et al.,

2020)

In many of the previous discussions about the barriers to teaching and learning,

accessibility for students with disabilities has been a prominent point of discussion. Despite what

could seem to be a widespread use of the Internet among young people, many still have unfair

access, which is characterized by disadvantage, to the Internet and online social networking sites.
Particularly little is known about the interactions between young people with disabilities and

information technologies.

However, ICT has the ability to help advance gender equality and women's

empowerment, but there is also evidence of a "gender divide," as shown by the fact that women

are less likely than men to have access to and use ICT. There is a danger that ICT will exacerbate

current gender discrepancies and encourage new forms of inequality if this gender gap isn't

specifically addressed. If, however, the gender aspects ICT, including potential for capacity-

building, access and use. When employment and potential for empowerment are carefully

identified and handled, ICT may be a powerful catalyst for the political and social empowerment

of women as well as the advancement of gender equality.