Pedagogic engagement in Argentina for students attending primary and secondary levels – an empirical analysis of main barriers during the COVID-19 pandemic

I use the National Evaluation of the Pedagogical Continuity Process, a survey implemented in June 2020 by the Argentinean government to assess the response of the education system in the context of the Social, Preventive and Mandatory Isolation due to COVID-19. I focus on primary and secondary school students (2,748 observations) to investigate the extent of bottlenecks linked to pedagogic continuity intensity (PCI) during the first three months of lock-down, when students were faced with home online learning. I model the chances of moving to higher values of PCI using an ordered logit. The paper finds that weak Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) access, low parental education, attending a public school, and gender and regional differences, are all leading drivers behind weak pedagogic engagement of students. I also find that engagement with the government online program can mitigate this, boosting pedagogic engagement.