Skip to main content

Locked out? Only 8% of rural poor children studying online, 37% not at all: Survey

By Rosamma Thomas*

The catastrophic consequences of the prolonged lockdown since March 2020 were documented in a recent survey of 1,400 children from underprivileged backgrounds. The survey found that only 8% of rural children were studying online regularly; 37% are not studying at all. Most parents want schools to reopen soon, as half the children surveyed could barely read.
Primary and upper primary schools in India have been shut for 500 days now, and as expected, the disruption has caused many children to forget even what they had learnt.
“During this period, a small minority of privileged children were able to study online in the safety of their homes. The rest, however, were locked out of school without further ado. Some struggled to continue studying, online or offline. Many others gave up and spent time milling around the village or basti…” the report announcing this survey, which was conducted in August 2021 in 15 states and union territories – Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal -- said.
The survey was conducted by volunteers, mostly university students, who focused on hamlets and bastis where most children attend the local government school. A total of 1,362 households were part of this survey, with 60% of the sample coming from Dalit or Adivasi families. A full 98 percent of parents from SC/ST groups wanted schools to reopen without delay. In Latehar district of Jharkhand, the survey team was asked by higher caste group members, “If these people get educated, who will work in our fields?”
The survey results showed that smartphones were scarce and often needed by adults at work; when there were several children in the house, the smaller ones often did not have access to the phones. Only 9% of schoolchildren surveyed had their own phone. Many of the children who did have access to the phone found online classes harder to follow and more difficult to comprehend, given they had trouble concentrating.
Even when the children had the phone, some families reported that they did not have the money to pay for “data”. A majority of the households also reported connectivity troubles. Two thirds of urban parents whose children were able to access schooling online said their children appeared to have fallen behind, with reading and writing skills declining. Even children in grades 6-8 struggled to read a simple sentence in Hindi fluently. “To some extent, the dismal results reflect the poor quality of schooling prior to the lockdown,” the survey report,  titled "Locked Out: Emergency report on School Education", said.
Many of the children who did have access to the phone found online classes harder to follow and more difficult to comprehend
For those unable to access classes online, there was little evidence that children were doing any offline studying at all. “Children’s reading and writing abilities have been in freefall…” the report states. Among the better off in the sample, there were a few students taking private offline tuitions. “TV based education, for its part, seems to be a flop show,” the report notes. Only one percent of rural and 8% of urban children had seen these broadcasts.
What the survey found remarkable was the length to which some teachers had gone to continue classes – some of them were meeting children in small groups, holding classes at their homes or elsewhere. Some teachers were visiting children at home. These were small gestures, unable to make up for the vast lacunae in the whole education system during lockdown.
Twenty six percent of the sample were children who had transferred to government school from a private school, after parents were reluctant to pay fees for online classes alone or had trouble meeting the fee-paying requirement. Some parents were still struggling to transfer their children, unable to get the required transfer certificate without paying the whole dues in fees.
Midday meals had been discontinued and grains were distributed to students; parents complained that they were not getting the full quota they were entitled to. Twenty percent of children in urban settings had not received either food or cash transfer during the lockdown.
“The fig leaf of online education masked the elephant of school exclusion for the best of 17 months. The fact that this monumental injustice remained virtually unquestioned for so long is a telling indictment of India’s exclusionary democracy,” the report notes.
---
*Freelance journalist based in Pune

Comments

TRENDING

Importance of Bangladesh for India amidst 'growing might' of China in South Asia

By Samara Ashrat*  The basic key factor behind the geopolitical importance of Bangladesh is its geographical location. The country shares land borders with Myanmar and India. Due to its geographical position, Bangladesh is a natural link between South Asia and Southeast Asia.  The country is also a vital geopolitical ally to India, in that it has the potential to facilitate greater integration between Northeast India and Mainland India. Not only that, due to its open access to the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh has become significant to both China and the US.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

'BBC film shows only tip of iceberg': Sanjiv Bhatt's daughter speaks at top US press club

By Our Representative   The United States' premier journalists' organisation, the National Press Club (NPC), has come down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for recent "attacks on journalists in India." Speaking at the screening of an episode of the BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question,” banned in India, in the club premises, NPC President Eileen O’Reilly said, “Since Modi came to power we have watched with frustration and disappointment as his regime has suppressed the rights of its citizens to a free and independent news media."

Regional political dynamics 'leading to' institutional violence in SAARC University

By Sandeep Pandey*  South Asian University is a university set up in Delhi by member countries of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Maldives – which is open to students from all these countries. However, as SAARC is receiving little attention these days because of regional political dynamics, it appears as if SAU has lost significance too. Because of the hiatus in peace process between India and Pakistan, the Board of Governors of this University is dysfunctional.

Natural farming: Hamirpur leads the way to 'huge improvement' in nutrition, livelihood

By Bharat Dogra*  Santosh is a dedicated farmer who along with his wife Chunni Devi worked very hard in recent months to convert a small patch of unproductive land into a lush green, multi-layer vegetable garden. This has ensured year-round supply of organically grown vegetables to his family as well as fetched several thousand rupees in cash sales.

Over-stressed? As Naveen Patnaik turns frail, Odisha 'moves closer' to leadership crisis

By Sudhansu R Das  Not a single leader in Odisha is visible in the horizon who can replace Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. He has ruled Odisha for nearly two and half decades. His father, Biju Patnaik, had built Odisha; he was a daring pilot who saved the life of Indonesia’s Prime Minister Sjahrir and President Sukarno when the Dutch army blocked their exit.

Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Ban Ki-moon, others ask Bangladesh PM to 'protect' Yunus

Counterview Desk  A campaign has been launched to support Bangladesh-based economist, micro-finance guru and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, seeking signatures from citizens across the globe in order to “protect” his work, life and safety.

Electricity sharing opens up new window for India’s eastern neighbourhood engagement

By Sufian Asif* Today, challenges like climate change, pandemics, energy reliance, economic crisis, and many more are concerning us. No nation can overcome these obstacles without the assistance and collaboration of other nations. Most importantly, many of these problems have international repercussions. South Asia is facing much more difficulty when compared to other regions. In South Asia, we have some regional organizations, but they are ineffective.

'Vulgar display of wealth': Govt of India using G20 presidency for political, electoral gains

Counterview Desk  Seeking endorsement for a public statement on India's G20 Presidency, several people’s movements, trade unions and other civil society groups have come together to say that not only will G20 and its priorities “will worsen economic, social and climate crisis”, already, India’s presidency is being used “for vulgar display of pomp & for electoral gains.”