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On International Literacy Day, a look at how teachers in India trying to keep kids in school

Covid-19 pandemic has severely affected the education sector with many students unable to access online classes due to the lockdown and digital divide.

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New Delhi: The Covid-19 pandemic has devastated several sectors across the world but education has proven to be a major casualty this year.

According to data collated by the United Nations (UN), over 24 million children across the world may never return to school after the pandemic is over. In India, the numbers are even more telling — around 32 crore children have been affected by the Covid-19 lockdown announced in March.

The migrant exodus that followed the lockdown announcement, coupled with the deep digital divide, added to students’ mounting problems.

A teacher in a lower-income private primary school in Delhi’s Seelampur said only 60 per cent students returned to the school after restrictions were lifted, as many had shifted to cheaper government schools or gone back to their villages.

There have been many stories of students going out of their way to be able to access education, and of teachers trying their best to help. In remote places such as villages of Nagaland, children have to trek 2-3 km every day to reach a spot where internet connection is available to access online classes.

In West Bengal, a teacher perches himself on a tree every day to get a strong internet connection to be able to teach his students.

On International Literacy Day, ThePrint looks at some of the problems faced by students amid the pandemic, and how students and teachers are working together to overcome them.

Lack of access to online classrooms

Yash Dubey, a 15-year-old student from Class 11, had to move three to four cities due to the lockdown and lost out on a lot of study time because of it.

Dubey had to leave Pune in mid-May with his family, after his entire community began shifting back to their villages. They moved back to his native village in Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh. However, the internet connection in the village was not up to the mark, and the family moved to Bihar’s Patna to be with Dubey’s father, who works in a construction company.

But the cost of living in Patna proved to be too high, forcing Dubey along with his mother and two sisters to move back to Jaunpur.

“We are three siblings and own one smartphone. We simply couldn’t attend classes together so that was a struggle. I was first taking JEE coaching on a scholarship but lagged far behind because of this constant shifting, so I decided to quit it. That’s when I got a scholarship in Mahindra International School,” Dubey told ThePrint.

He later informed the school about his inability to attend classes, who provided him with an internet router and laptops so he and his siblings could study without facing a lot of hassles.

However, in some cases, even schools are unwilling to hold classes.

Shankar Shinde had to leave Navi Mumbai for his hometown in Latur, after the lockdown left him unemployed. The tailor has been without work since March, and his son who studies in Class 4 hasn’t been able to attend a single class since March.

“I called up the school many times to take his classes. They always promised to start next Monday. And that Monday never comes,” Shinde said.

“All I want is for my son to be able to attend classes, like everyone else. He’s missing out on a lot,” he added

Srishti Mehra, a Teach For India fellow, noticed this lack of access and digital illiteracy while conducting online classes.

“On an average, a family of four to five members has one working smartphone which has to be shared among all the siblings for learning. These are basic smartphones that lack advanced features with limited data packs so it is difficult for students to attend classes, take notes and even submit homework/assignments over WhatsApp,” Mehra told ThePrint.

She also noted how digital knowledge is a luxury even in urban Indian schools as many students struggle with even drafting an email. “I taught grade 10 students and over 90 per cent of them don’t have the basic know-how of computers or laptops because they have never had dedicated computer education throughout their schooling,” she said.

Karthikeyan M.G., senior manager at U&I, a volunteer-driven organisation that works at rehabilitating and educating various communities, was dealing with a bigger problem. There was often only one 4G smartphone at a centre, making it almost impossible to conduct online classes. One U&I centre has 25-30 children on an average and centres are generally orphanages, shelter homes and community centres.

“The risk of dropouts gravely increases with access to online education being a luxury that most of these children cannot afford,” Karthikeyan noted.

Overcoming problems 

The first thing teachers and these organisations have done is to ensure their students have access to necessary technology.

“We started re-allocating our funds towards online classes and focused on buying and crowdsourcing devices for the learning centres with ‘a student per device’ ratio. For this, we had run a crowdsourcing campaign (Donate your Device),” Karthikeyan said.

U&I procured devices that could support online conference apps and then donated these devices to students.

“Additionally, we had also purchased 50 units of Samsung Tablets and distributed them to our centres along with a 4G Jio sim, to ensure good internet connectivity. These were our initial steps to improve access to the internet and internet-friendly gadgets for school children in orphanages,” he added.

U&I typically provides after-school learning and children in orphanages and shelter homes  would have faced greater trouble accessing online classes, and some might have missed out on them in this period completely, without the assistance of such organisation.

Mehra told ThePrint that Teach For India also procured second-hand gadgets to distribute among kids, and immediately after the lockdown was announces, they also collected ration to provide to these families who were faced with sudden loss of income and could be driven into poverty.

Furthermore, she pointed out how teachers have also struggled to adapt to online teaching.

“Our school systems still require a lot of paperwork be it report cards, trackers, tests, attendance; training teachers for their professional development and equipping them with the digital know-how has never been made a priority so expecting a seamless transition would be naive on our part,” she added.

Karthikeyan stressed on citizen philanthropy now more than ever, and urged people to come on board and teach kids. “All you need, after all, is just a smartphone, willingness to help and 2.5 hours of your time, every week,” he said.


Also read: A JEE hopeful’s exam day amid pandemic — fear, anxiety, nausea and lots of sanitiser


 

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