Level of Educational Attainment and Its Impact on Technology Diffusion in Developing Countries

Abstract

Fast growth of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has facilitated access to information as well as communication across the world. However, due to variety of reasons the penetration of ICT is not homogeneous in the developed and developing countries, resulted an increase in the information gap between these regions. The reasons may be socio-cultural, geographical and level of educational attainment (in terms of enrollment), which play a major role in usage and diffusion of a new technology. Our objective is to analyse enrollment pattern and linkages between level of education and diffusion of ICT indicators such as Internet and personal computers. The paper is divided into two sections (i) to analyse enrollment trends in education at different levels; primary, secondary and tertiary level and (ii) to investigate relationship between levels of education and diffusion of ICT indicators; Internet user, Internet user and personal computers per 100 populations in Brazil, China, India and USA. It is assumed that education is an influencing factor that plays an important role for acceptance and diffusion of a new technology. Results show that enrollment at primary level in Brazil, China and USA is expected to decline whereas in the case of India it may increase. Likewise enrollment at secondary and tertiary level in China, India and USA may increase in future. Analysis also indicates positive correlation between enrollment at primary level and penetration of Internet users personal computers in India whereas in the case of tertiary level it shows weak correlation. In the case of tertiary level except India there is a strong correlation between penetration of Internet and personal computers. Further, it may be noticed that in the case of Brazil secondary education shows negative correlation in all cases.