INEQUALITY IN E-LEARNING IN EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES: ROLE OF GENDER, EDUCATION AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

E-learning is increasingly used in modern educational institutions, especially since the pandemic COVID-19. By examining the role of gender, education, and urban growth in e-learning, we can learn more about possible differences and digital divides within and between EU countries. To successfully address inequality in education, legislators need to understand the causes of inequalities. The paper aims to examine e-learning inequality across European Union (EU) countries, comparing the most developed EU countries (namely the EU-15) with other EU countries. To avoid the possible biases that could occur due to the COVID-19 infection, we focus on two years before the pandemic, 2017, and 2019. To account for gender, education, and urban development differences, we compare the usage of e-learning among the individuals belonging to these groups. The results show that the EU-15 countries consistently perform better compared to the other EU countries. This suggests that the digital divide is difficult to overcome, as it persists despite the EU's strong efforts under the Digital Europe umbrella to align its member countries by technological level.