Information about students’ access to computers as part of their mathematics and science lessons is provided in Exhibits 14.1 (fourth grade mathematics), 14.2 (fourth grade science), 14.3 (eighth grade mathematics), and 14.4 (eighth grade science). Each exhibit presents teachers’ reports on whether computers are available for students to use during lessons as well as the types of access they have: whether each student in the class has a computer, the class has computers that students can share, and/or the school has computers that the class can sometimes share (teachers could indicate more than one type of access to computers). Average student achievement is also reported for each category. Countries are ordered by the percent of students having access to computers.

In fourth grade, computers are available for students to use during mathematics lessons for 39 percent of students, on average (Exhibit 14.1), and during science lessons for 45 percent of students, on average (Exhibit 14.2). Availability of computers during mathematics and science lessons was similar for eighth grade students: 37 percent had mathematics teachers who said computers were available (Exhibit 14.3) and 48 percent had science teachers who said computers were available (Exhibit 14.4). There was wide variation across countries in computer availability, with 80 percent or more of students having access in some countries and as few as 5 or 6 percent in others. Having computers available for instruction was associated with higher achievement, on average, in both mathematics and science and at both grades. Of course, access to computers is likely associated with access to other resources that are associated with higher achievement. There was also quite a bit of variation across countries in the types of access to computers, though the most frequent type of access was that the school has computers that the class can sometimes use (28–29% of students in mathematics lessons and 36–39% of students in science lessons).