Building Digital Public Infrastructures (dpi) For Inclusive, Equitable And Quality Education: Educational Technology Must Be Based On Public Values

The policy brief focuses on guidelines for promoting Digital Public Infrastructures (DPI) in the educational sector. Within the G20, there is significant agreement on the scope of DPI, encompassing digital identity, payment methods, and data-sharing. However, we argue that services connected to fundamental human rights, such as the right to education, demand an infrastructural perspective with significant public steering. Moreover, the approach demands the specification of tangible aspects rather than solely focusing on software and data frameworks. In addition, the debate at the policy level needs to go beyond discussions on “how to use” technological services such as platforms. Instead, it must consider, in a participatory fashion, “which” and “if” technologies should be used, and importantly, “where” the infrastructure is hosted and maintained. Education managers must engage more critically with infrastructure, which includes understanding and selecting providers based on aspects of their business models beyond perceived gains in educational efficiency. As noted in the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report 2023, the vendors often offer positive evidence for adopting new technologies. Digital infrastructure is essential to the functioning of educational organizations, but its role as a structural component of educational governance has yet to be relatively visible to the agenda. Building a digital ecosystem requires services and platforms and robust and compliant physical structures such as data centers, increasingly controlled by a small cohort of private corporations. Itis increasingly essential to discuss investment in public infrastructures so that public educational systems can have significant control and sovereignty over systems and data created by and used by students, teachers, and administrators. It may also be a catalyst to improve lifelong learning.