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With the need for social distancing, it has become difficult to physically reopen schools. When schools in Israel reopened, clusters of COVID-19 cases were reported – and all schools had to be closed again. Thus, keeping schools closed is a wise option.
The current situation has certainly increased the demand for virtual learning and in the same direction, the Government of Maharashtra has announced the beginning of a new academic year for state board schools with online classes.
While it seems like a logical decision, especially in Maharashtra which accounts for 30 percent of COVID-19 cases in India, it does not account for digital disparity. Not all students have access to smartphones/internet and therefore, it is imperative to find alternatives to online learning so that all students are able to access education.
The city of Mumbai, which has the highest number of cases in Maharashtra, would benefit a lot from social distancing, as a result of online learning. However, it should be noted that schools that are run by the government – Municipal Corporations and Zilla Parishads – have a majority of students coming from poor economic backgrounds, who do not have access to internet or TV.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Education Department recently came up with a report, that studied the accessibility and effectiveness of online learning against the backdrop of the pandemic.
According to the report, only 46.74 percent of students are present in BMC-run schools, while 88.23 percent of students in BMC-affiliated private schools have remained in touch with studies online. Only 25 percent of the students from schools having Classes 1-8 and 42.73 percent of students from Classes 9-10 use Diksha, an app developed by National Council of Teacher Education.
Focussing only on online education, despite evidence of its poor penetration, is contrary to the goal of universal education. It is critical that all students, irrespective of their economic backgrounds have an equitable access to education. To facilitate that, without compromising on social distancing norms, innovative steps need to be taken. There are a few ways of remote learning that can be implemented without access to the internet/smartphones.
Such unconventional alternatives will require the BMC’s Education Department to introduce flexibility in the existing curriculum and evaluation methods. It will also need to map students based on demographic data such as grades they are studying in and the area they live in.
The focus should be on how to achieve remote learning, even without access to the internet, so that all of the students are on an equal platform and not left behind in the system. That being said, the long-term focus should be on how to reduce the digital disparity, so that the benefits of online education are equally accorded to everyone.
(Sunila Dixit is a Research Analyst at The Takshashila Institute, Bangalore. Her research focuses on health policy and development areas that affect public health at large. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
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