Digital Divide

Context:  The latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) provides some answers for policymakers about the reach of digital content to students.

Impact of the pandemic:

• Reversing the progress in global poverty reduction: since the 1990s.

• Loss of human capital: According to The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), about 1.6 billion students have been affected by the closures of educational institutes globally and will result into lower lifetime income.

Issues with online education:

• Significant impact on learning outcomes: While the proportion of children from households with smartphones has gone up from 36.5 % in 2018 to 61.8 % in 2020, only 11% of students had access to online classes. 

• Schools failed to adapt to the extend desired: Low reach of learning materials because schools didn't send any learning material.

• Online education cannot substitute classroom education: 

• Rather it can be used to complement classroom teaching

• New education policy also envisages this complementing role of online education

Way Forward:

• Cash transfer on account of education.
• Sensitise teachers about the importance of online teaching in the present scenario.
• Online teaching should act as a complementary measure and not substitute classroom education.

Conclusion: The state of school education in India is far from satisfactory, and the pandemic would only make things worse in the absence of timely policy interventions.