Home Digital Access as a Channel and Multiplier of Socioeconomic Inequality in Mathematics: Evidence from the Philippines in PISA 2022
Journal Type:Research Article
Subject:Education
Subject Field:Education Journal
Volume:199, Issue: 1, June, 2026
Publish Date:June 29, 2026 6:21 pm
Pages:2170-2176
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Abstract
The Philippines did not administer the optional PISA 2022 ICT Familiarity Questionnaire, so we examine the one technology measure available for all students — home ICT resources (ICTRES) — as a marker of the digital divide. Using PISA 2022 microdata for the Philippines (analytic N ≈ 5,821 with complete covariates; ten plausible values; eighty Fay balanced repeated replication weights pooled by Rubin's rules), we ask whether home ICT access is associated with mathematics literacy net of socio-economic and school background, and whether it statistically channels and amplifies the socio-economic gap. Home ICT access was strongly associated with mathematics (about 14 score points per index unit, roughly 17 per standard deviation) and robust to a learning-during-disruption block. It statistically accounted for approximately 30% of the association between occupational status and mathematics, and the status-by-access interaction was positive and significant, indicating that the achievement return to access is larger at higher socio-economic status. Home digital access therefore appears to operate as both a statistical channel and a multiplier of educational inequality. The findings provide a pre-generative-AI baseline for understanding how unequal digital resources may shape future technology-supported learning.