Digital divide: Tech widens gap in schools amid coronavirus pandemic

Students from socially, economically backward communities have no access to computers; many schools in city failed too
For representational purposes
For representational purposes

BENGALURU:  Citizenry working with members of economically and socially backward communities are worried about the widening education gap, considering the voices of a number of parents, whose wards are predominantly in government schools, are not being heard. 

A Ministry of Human Resource Development report of 2016-17 showed that the number of aided and unaided private schools are a little more than half of the government schools in Karnataka. The state has 49,883 government schools, 7,377 government aided schools, 18,760 private unaided schools and 54 schools managed by others.

Local activists in Karnataka told TNIE that a majority of those who attend classes in government schools are not just economically, but also socially, backward. A larger concentration of schools even in the country’s IT Capital failed to display  the adaptation of technology. As per the same MHRD report, almost three of four schools have shown a lack of computer infrastructure in their institutes — 72.74  per cent schools were found with no computers in working condition. 

Add to this, several students are also first-generation schoolers. The parents’ lack of education compounds the problem as their doubts don’t get cleared—-- be it with respect to the use of an app for education or general studies,” State convener of Slum Janandolana Karnataka Narasimha Murthy told TNIE.

All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), which primarily works with those from the unorganised sector, and has been tracing the the non-payment of wages and large-scale termination of employment across the state, also appealed to the government to take measures that wouldn’t further 
distance the economically and socially disadvantaged students from their right to education.

It said the caste and class based inequities would be further entrenched with online classes. Already, as per the MHRD’s 2014 report ‘Education For All: Towards Quality with Equity’ talks about 14.7 per cent access to education for ST students. 

AICCTU also pressed for a redefinition of dropout rates, which at present, defines a child between the ages of 7 and 14, who does not attend school for seven consecutive days. “The State government will have to seriously consider the question of children being forced out of education immediately, and take all necessary steps to ensure that no child is compelled to drop out of school,” they said, also concerned about the growing potential of child labour due to these forced factors.

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The New Indian Express
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