New Delhi, Jan 17 (PTI) Boys in the age group of 14-18 years are more than twice as likely to own smartphones compared to girls who are also less likely to know how to use these devices, according to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) released on Wednesday.
The report published by the Pratham Foundation highlights that 89 per cent of the youths in that age group have smartphones at home and 92 per cent of them know how to use them.
Close to 90 per cent of all youths have a smartphone in the household and know how to use it. Of those who can use a smartphone, males (43.7 per cent) are more than twice as likely to have their own smartphone than females (19.8 per cent), the report said.
Among those who can use a smartphone, 31 per cent have their own devices.
The percentage of females who can use smartphones was 89.8 against 94.7 for male, according to the survey report.
“Availability of a computer/laptop in the households is much lower, with only 9% having one at home. Youth who have a computer/laptop at home are much more likely to know how to use it (85%) than those who do not (33.9%),” it said.
ASER is a nationwide citizen-led household survey that provides a snapshot of the status of children’s schooling and learning in rural India. First implemented in 2005, the ‘basic’ ASER survey was conducted annually until 2014 and switched to an alternate-year cycle in 2016.
The ‘basic’ ASER collects information about enrollment in pre-school and school for children in the age group of 3 to 16, and assesses children aged 5 to 16 one-on-one to understand their foundational reading and arithmetic abilities. In the intervening years, ASER dives deeper into different aspects of children’s schooling and learning in rural India.
The ASER 2023 ‘Beyond Basics’ survey was conducted in 28 districts across 26 states, reaching a total of 34,745 youth in the age group 14-18 years. One rural district was surveyed in each major state, with the exception of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, where two rural districts were surveyed.
The survey explored two components – a self-reported questionnaire capturing youths’ access to digital devices and their online habits – and an assessment of their digital skills – performing a set of tasks in front of the survey team using an available smartphone.
On communication and online safety, the survey found that 50 per cent of all surveyed males have an email ID, compared to slightly under 30 per cent of females.
“Among enrolled youth, the likelihood of having an email ID and having sent an email increases as the level of education goes up. Moreover, the survey found that as high as 90.5% of the youths in the age group of 14 to 18 years reported having used social media in the reference week, with a slightly higher proportion of males (93.4 per cent) than females (87.8 per cent),” the report said.
“However, of all youth who used social media, only about half are familiar with the online safety settings that were included in the survey. Males are more likely to know about these settings than females,” the report observed.
Nearly two-thirds of the youth who can use a smartphone said they have used it for some education related activity, such as watching online videos related to studies, solving doubts, or exchanging notes. Nearly 25 per cent who are not currently enrolled also report doing education related activities on their smartphone.
Also 25 per cent of the youths are also using smartphones to access online services such as “making online payments, filling a form, paying a bill or booking a ticket.” “Males are more likely to have accessed at least one of these services (37.6 per cent) than females (19 per cent). Close to 80 per cent of the youth report having used their smartphone to do an entertainment related activity, such as watching a movie or listening to music, as well,” the survey found.
According to the report findings, 80 per cent of the surveyed teens were able to find a specific video on YouTube and among these, nearly 90 per cent can share it with a friend.
At least 70 per cent of youths can browse the internet to find the answer to a question and about two-thirds can set an alarm for a specific time. A little over a third can use Google Maps to find the time taken to travel between two points, the report stated. However, it highlights that females lag behind in using smartphones and computers than their male counterparts. For instance, while half of all surveyed males have an email ID, only 30 per cent of females had their email IDs. Similarly, only 25.3 per cent females can use Google maps against 48.9 per cent males. PTI GJS TIR TIR
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.