Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Thailand’s Educational Inequality: Evidence from PISA Assessment in Mathematics
Thailand’s Educational Inequality
Keywords:
Education Inequality in Thailand, PISA Scores, Socioeconomic Status, Digital DividesAbstract
This study employs quantile regression to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on educational inequality in Thailand, utilizing the country's PISA mathematics scores from 2015, 2018, and 2022. It examines the determinants of student performance scores to reflect how the COVID-19 pandemic, which necessitated a shift from in-person to online learning, affected students at different performance levels. By doing so, it aims to elucidate the pandemic's influence on the learning gap among Thai students. The analysis reveals that socioeconomic status is a primary and persistent driver of low PISA mathematics achievement. The pandemic exacerbated pre-existing educational inequalities, primarily by widening the digital divide and disproportionately benefiting students with superior digital access. This intensified a persistent pattern of disparity tied to factors like school location and affiliation, which in turn necessitates targeted policy interventions to address these structural differences. Complementary Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition of outcome disparities between high- and low-achieving schools further confirms socio-economic status as a key driver of inequality and highlights the pandemic's role in widening digital divides. A considerable unexplained component suggests the potential influence of unmeasured heterogeneity, encompassing both inherently unquantifiable factors and the persistent effects of indirect discrimination as well as historical contexts.
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