Doing school but not at school: territorial peculiarities and socio-economic inequalities in access to distance learning

Covid-19 pandemic has strongly highlighted how social and economic differences among and within countries can contribute to increase many inequalities in health care and also in many other aspects of people’s lives, including education. This study aims to investigate, within the Italian national territory, how the transfer of all educational activities in the digital classroom affected home as the only physical learning environment. In fact, domestic environment, characterized by possession of adequate technological spaces and tools, can be discriminatory for certain sections of the population. Census data from the INVALSI 5th grade Student Questionnaire for the academic year 2018/2019 are used. Through georeferencing of schools, we brought to light some territorial peculiarities, not always predictable, based on socio-economic and cultural background of students. To deepen the size and dimension of these differences can be useful for setting the prospective strategies of action.