40% School Children In 7 States Lack Access To Digital Devices

According to a report prepared by the Union Ministry of Education, between 40 and 70 per cent of school-going children in the states of Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand do not have access to digital devices which raises a bigger challenge during the time of the pandemic.

The report suggests that the digital divide has hit some states disproportionately hard, while a few may have coped well due to the adequate availability of smartphones and television sets. However, the picture remains incomplete in the absence of data from states such as Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal and questionable claims made by Rajasthan about it not having students without digital access.

New Normal May Have Huge Impact On Learning Levels

The report, Initiatives by the School Education Sector in 2020-21, based on data shared by 22 of 28 states and seven out of eight Union Territories was made public last week. It says that the "new normal' may also have a huge impact on the learning levels for almost all children and learning loss may be a reality for many children."

Based on surveys of various sample sizes by the states and UTs in 2020 and 2021, 29 crore students, including 14.33 crore in Bihar, were found without digital devices. Among states that participated in reporting, the high share of students without digital access include Madhya Pradesh (70 per cent), Bihar (58.09 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (57 per cent), Assam (44.24 per cent), Jharkhand (43.42 per cent), Uttarakhand (41.17 per cent) and Gujarat (40 per cent). Among the better-placed states and UTs is Delhi, with around 4 per cent students without access, Kerala 1.63 per cent, and Tamil Nadu 14.51 per cent, reported The Indian Express.

In Assam, the state reported 3,10,6255 students with no digital device. Andhra Pradesh surveyed 29.34 lakh out of 81.36 lakh students in May 2021 and found that 2,01,568 students have no cellphone access. Bihar reported that of 2.46 crore students in Bihar, 1.43 crore children have no access to digital devices. According to the UNICEF survey, 40 per cent of the students in Gujarat did not have access to smartphones and the Internet. The state has 1.14 crore students across 54,629 schools. In Uttarakhand, the authorities surveyed 5.20 lakh out of 23.39 lakh schoolchildren and found 2.14 lakh do not have access to digital devices for online learning.