According to a report from the UN's education agency (Unesco), approximately 360 million students worldwide, with 72% of them from Africa, were unable to access distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite the potential of online learning to reach over one billion students, the study highlighted the significant disparities in access to educational resources during the pandemic.

However, the report also acknowledged that distance learning did help mitigate the crisis in the education sector when schools were forced to close in 2020 due to the coronavirus.

In particular, distance learning proved beneficial for 22,000 children affected by the Islamist Boko Haram insurgency in north-eastern Nigeria. Mobile phones and radios were utilized to support their education, resulting in improvements in both literacy and numeracy skills.

However, the research pointed out that not everyone has access to the internet: Only 40% of elementary, 50% of lower secondary, and 65% of upper secondary schools worldwide have internet access.

In order to preserve teacher-led, in-person instruction, the report encourages nations to have technology built on their own terms.

Unesco also cautioned that using technology by kids in the classroom or at home could be "distracting, disrupting learning" and that it should not be used as a substitute for face-to-face connection.

“Its use must be for enhanced learning experiences and for the well-being of students and teachers, not to their detriment," Unesco head Audrey Azoulay said.