The circumstances driving the adoption of digital tools in teaching and learning in South Africa is based on needing better access to quality education and to enhance existing pedagogical approaches. Quality education is a driver for ensuring inclusivity and an indispensable requirement to eradicate socio-economic inequalities. The South African context is characterized by low-quality education and with the prevalent of crisis and pandemics affecting education continuity and the completion of the curriculum it becomes a poverty trap. Therefore, given the pedagogical affordances of digital tools not bounded by time and place, their adoption becomes critical to expand the classroom boundaries and create multiple entry to learning. This article presents a systematic review on the pedagogical affordances of digital tools to enable unbounded education and reduce educational inequalities. To develop this research, a literature search was conducted in Google Scholar database and the final sample was 20 articles between 2015 and 2024. The data were analysed around the following variables: year of publication, type of document, journal impact, keywords, language and most cited articles. The findings of this study indicate that inclusivity is fundamental to quality education and post COVID-19 there is a growing theme of digitalisation and reduction of inequalities. In addition, there is evidence that access to digital devices, stable internet connectivity, professional development opportunities for educators and digital learning platforms are critical to transforming pedagogies. Importantly, quality education has no technical solution but requires equitable access to digital infrastructure and systematic professional development opportunities.

Keywords: Inclusivity, South Africa, Quality Education, COVID-19, Digital Tools.