Educational Equity and Digital Access in Remote Regions: A Sociological and Policy Analysis of Student Social Inclusion in Indonesia's 3T Areas

Abstract

Indonesia's rapid digitalization of education, accelerated by the Merdeka Belajar reform and post-pandemic e-learning mandates, has widened rather than closed disparities between urban centers and the frontier, outermost, and underdeveloped (3T) regions. This study examines how digital education policy interacts with cultural capital and social participation to shape student inclusion in three 3T districts spanning Papua, Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT), and Lampung's periphery. Using Critical Policy Analysis combined with a qualitative case study design, data were gathered through in-depth interviews with 24 students, teachers, and local officials, classroom observation, and analysis of policy documents including Kurikulum Merdeka and Rumah Pendidikan platform guidelines. Findings show that digitalization policies assume a "digital-ready" student whose habitus already contains the literacies, language competence, and parental support that platforms like Rumah Belajar presuppose; students lacking this cultural capital remain excluded even when hardware is provided. Infrastructural gaps compound this: over half of 3T schools have damaged buildings, missing electricity, or no internet, and internet access among Papuan students sits near 42 percent against a national urban rate above 80 percent. The study argues that digital equity policy in Indonesia operates on a deficit model of access provision while ignoring the reproduction of symbolic exclusion through cultural and social capital deficits. It contributes a field-grounded framework linking Bourdieusian capital theory to critical policy analysis of ICT-in-education governance and proposes that equity interventions must target participatory and cultural dimensions, not only device distribution.