ABSTRACT
It is sometimes argued that new information and communication technologies will become a powerful tool for eradicating illiteracy in the world more rapidly and more efficiently than would have been the case with traditional approaches. Such a view is highly disputable, because it ignores the fact that budgetary constraints in the financing of education are increasingly severe. Several authors have developed a theory according to which there exists a world system of education, meaning a converging trend of educational systems worldwide, and this trend is supposed to have a kind of autonomy with respect to economic development and economic disparities among countries. This theory is not supported by recent evidence, as shown by education indicators. The economic gap between rich and poor countries is increasing, as well as the gap in access to education. This new trend is closely linked to shortages of resources in the least advanced countries, and new technologies will not bring any easing in this resource constraint. Quite the opposite, for while the introduction of new technologies will have a limited impact on education budgets of developed countries (1 per cent to 5 per cent at the most), its impact on the education budgets of poor countries would be huge. For the first time in the history of education systems, the price of an educational input is determined not in accordance with the local purchasing power, but by world standards which apply in a similar way to rich and poor countries. As a consequence, the least advanced countries have a simple choice to make: either they introduce new technologies in their schools at the expense of expanding school opportunities to currently excluded children, or they concentrate their limited resources on educational expansion, and thus renounce the chance to develop new technologies in their school systems. As long as gross domestic product (GDP) per capita remains highly unequal from one country to another, the capacity of new technologies to reduce the education gap will not constitute a viable option.
