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Over 1 cr kids in Bihar, 30 lakh in Karnataka lack access to digital learning, govt data shows

Education ministry submits preliminary report which shows a wide digital divide among states in terms of children's access to e-learning methods. Several states yet to submit data.

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New Delhi: Government data from across Indian states shows that the number of children without access to digital learning facilities is staggering. 

According to a preliminary report by the education ministry, more than one crore children in Bihar and over 30 lakh children in both Jharkhand and Karnataka have no access to digital learning devices.

Meanwhile, Kerala and Rajasthan are on the bright end of the spectrum, where all children have access to digital devices.

The data was shared by the Ministry of Education with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports Monday. This is only preliminary as many states — including West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and most of the north-eastern states — are yet to share the required data with the ministry.

The question of access to digital learning has been repeatedly raised in the past one year, when the pandemic forced schools and colleges to adopt online methods of teaching, restricting education to the virtual medium.

The preliminary report shared with the panel has thrown up worrying trends — many children across the country are still without access to digital learning devices, and with the pandemic dragging on for over a year now, schools across the country remain closed.

While Bihar, Telangana and Maharashtra have indicated that schools could possibly reopen from July, the Centre and most state governments are yet to take a call on the issue.

Confirming the submission of the preliminary report, head of the parliamentary panel, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, told ThePrint, “[The education] Ministry shared statistics on the number of children without access to internet and digital devices. But we want to know the effect of lack of facilities and the kind of learning gap that it has created. We have asked the ministry to evaluate that.”

The ministry, he said, is expected to submit the report by the end of this month.


Also read: 76% parents don’t want to send kids to schools, 69% want them vaccinated by Sept, survey says


Bridging the learning gap

The report and data are a part of the government’s plan to “bridge the learning gap due to school closure”.

While many states are yet to submit the required data to the ministry, according to figures available so far, Bihar appears to have the maximum number of children without access to digital devices — 1.4 crore. Other states where a large number of children do not have access to digital learning are Jharkhand — 32.5 lakh, and Karnataka — 31.3 lakh. In Assam, 31 lakh children have no access to digital learning.

However, from the available data, it is difficult to assess which states have the biggest learning gap since not only is the data incomplete, but some states have provided absolute numbers while others have shared data in terms of the percentage population that does not have access to digital learning.

For example, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir have told the government that 70 per cent students in their states do not have access to digital devices. The figure is more than 60 per cent for Maharashtra and 40 per cent for Gujarat.

The issue of digital divide in education has been raised continuously in the past one year, as classes have been online since March 2020.

Answering a question about the digital divide in learning, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had told the Parliament in March this year that the “government is addressing the issue of digital divide” and had started initiatives such as the ‘one class, one channel and community radio’ to reach children who do not have access to digital devices.

(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)


Also read: Salaries cut, ‘struggling to collect fees’: Private schools are worried as Covid drags on


 

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