PPM_2025_02_Rahmanov.pdf

The digital transformation of education is a modern trend, and it is essential to investigate

its role in enhancing quality education as one of the Sustainable Development

Goals. The purpose of the paper is to confirm the restraining or accelerating impact

of education digitalization on achieving SDG4 in Azerbaijan compared with SDG4

leaders. The sample consists of the chosen data of 14 indicators in the education digitalization

field (provided by the Statistics Division of the United Nations Department

of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

Organization Institute for Statistics Data, and the International Telecommunication

Union) in 2016–2023 from 10 countries: Azerbaijan (status ‘Challenges remain’ for

SDG4) and nine leading countries (status ‘Goal Achievement’) according to 2024 SGD

Index Rank. To achieve the goal, the Granger causal test and regression analysis (linear

modeling for time series and random-effects GLS regression for panel data) using Stata

SE 18.0 software were applied. It was confirmed that in Azerbaijan (both separately

and within a panel of studied countries), the impact of education digitalization on

achieving SDG4 is positive and accelerating (for specific indicators, it is not significant

but not restraining). The stronger impact is observed in Azerbaijan compared to

the average on the panel level. The key accelerators are school-level Internet access,

digital practical skills, and digital literacy, especially proportions of youth/adults who

have used arithmetic in spreadsheets, connected and installed new devices, and created

electronic presentations (increase in SDG4 achievement indicator by 2.63, 3.5%,

and 9.89%).