DO WE NEED AN E-DUCATION? AN IV ANALYSIS OF ICT'S IMPACT ON EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES

Abstract

The Singapore education system has been employing the usage of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) within its curriculum, with the provision of such resources in school for student-use, as well as training teachers in capitalizing on technology to deliver lessons. This paper serves to initiate research in the Singapore context, examining the impact of ICT usage in school for school-related purposes on Mathematics PISA scores. To control for the potential problems of endogeneity and simultaneity within the independent variable, this study adopts an Instrumental Variables approach to estimate the impact of ICT use on test scores. Upon controlling for endogeneity and simultaneity, empirical results indicate that the effect of ICT usage on Mathematics achievement is statistically insignificant. This result largely holds across gender and socioeconomic status, thereby questioning the effectiveness of the governmental programme to promote ICT use in schools.