Online education isn’t reaching those in need

The ‘State of Elementary Education in Rural India, 2023’ report, released by the Ministry of Education recently, has some important findings on the prevalence of smartphone usage among students which are useful for policymaking. It has revealed that more than 50% of the children in rural areas do not have access to smartphones. For about 49% of the students between 6 and 16 who have access to smartphones, the usage is related to entertainment and not education. About 56% of the students use their phone to watch movies while 47% use them to listen to music. Only 34% use the phones for study-related downloads, and just 18% access online learning via tutorials. Students in higher classes have higher access to smartphones. The usage time also varies with older students using it for more time than younger ones. 

The Covid pandemic had shown the importance of online education and the role smartphones play in it. The realisation still stays but the urgency has receded after physical classes started. This is particularly so for the rural areas where infrastructure and facilities are inadequate and awareness levels are lower than in urban areas. According to official data, there is an increase in the percentage of government schools with internet facility from 13.6% in 2020-21 to 24.2% in 2021-22. There is disparity among states, with variations ranging from 100% in Delhi to 10% in Assam. States have been advised to enter into MoUs with BSNL to provide internet access to all government schools. There are also financial provisions for setting up Information and Communication Technology (ICT) labs and smart classrooms. These need to be pursued so that students have greater access to online education. The level of access at present is low and it will lead to increased disparity between urban and rural students. This will have serious consequences on the educational levels and career opportunities of rural students. It should also be noted that the number of rural students are much larger than urban students.

Students cannot be blamed for giving more time for entertainment than for education. They need to have the right environment and guidance in schools and at home to realise the relative importance of all that is available online. It is important to offer educational programmes with entertainment value, and entertainment with educational value, to students so that learning becomes enjoyable. The study showed that the level of engagement of parents with children in the matter of education is low. Efforts must be made to improve children’s social and pedagogical engagement so that their education benefits from it.