In Kazakhstan, there is a tendency for a gradual increase in the average students' scores from rural to urban. For instance, there is a difference of 25 points between rural and urban students in Kazakhstan, and the average for OECD countries is 32 points (OECD, 2013). National education quality assessment systems also confirm the results of international rankings. The average score according to the results of the Unified National Testing (UNT) of secondary school students from rural areas in 2016 was 78.2 points, which is lower than the national average (81.2 points). The results of EEEA-2018 (External evaluation of the educational achievements of students in secondary education in Kazakhstan) demonstrated that urban students' results exceed rural ones by 7.08 points (National Testing Center, 2018). Thus, one can observe an increase in the widening gap between rural and urban schools in Kazakhstan.
ICT can be one of the tools for eliminating the different forms of inequity in education. Especially currently, the global pandemic has shown and proven the importance of digital resources and literacy and their role in educating students regardless of location. The connection of ICT for students’ academic achievements has been supported by many studies (Basilaia & Kvavadze, 2020; Moreno-Correa, 2020; OECD, 2001). The impact of ICT on the difference in the performance of rural and urban students also seems significant. Although Fuchs & Woessman (2004) found a positive and significant correlation between computer availability in school and students’ performance in PISA, the correlation becomes small and insignificant when other characteristics of the school are taken into account. Therefore, given such characteristics as the school location, it is relevant to study reasons for low students’ performance in rural areas in comparison with urban. Perhaps one of the hypotheses for the rural students’ low performance is that Kazakhstan is not progressing fast when it comes to ICT implementation. Despite enormous investments in equipment and internet connection, teachers' competencies for using ICT in teaching, as well as students’ competencies for using ICT in learning are disputable, particularly in rural areas. Thus, it is important to pay attention to the analysis of internetization and the digitalization of schools (Nurbayev, 2019). Moreover, there has been done little to no research on the moderating effect of ICT on students’ performance and school location in Kazakhstan.
The purpose of this quantitative study is to investigate the relationship between academic performance and school location, the relationship between academic performance and ICT, and finally, whether ICT can help to bridge the differences between urban and rural schools? And what is the role of ICT in predicting Kazakhstani PISA 2018 digitally assessed reading, math, and science performance?
The analysis reveals that in Kazakhstan there is an association between rural school location and achieving lower test scores across all subjects. The models suggest that the ICT resources, ICT interest, and Perceived ICT competence have a positive effect on students’ achievement in math, science, and reading. After taking into account school location and ICT, students can perform better in rural schools. ICT adoption and increased student interest in it are more likely to improve the performance of rural students. When applied to a real-life situation, this conclusion suggests that a gradual increase in ICT resources and interest in ICT among students will contribute to an increase in the reading, math, and science performance through the introduction of ICT into the school and everyday life of students. Therefore, the role of ICT in neutralizing the difference between urban and rural schools in Kazakhstan has been identified, thereby it can reduce the inequity between urban and rural areas.