
BHUBANESWAR: Access to smartphones among adolescents aged 14-16 is very high in Odisha but a larger chunk of these youngsters use the device for social media - expectedly so - than for educational activities.
The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)-2024, conducted by Pratham Foundation, reveals that about 80.9 per cent of teenagers know how to use a smartphone but only 61.7 pc use the device to engage in an educational activity, while 77.6 pc used it for social media.
The survey showed 83.2 pc boys and girls reported presence of a smartphone in their households. However, the state lags behind the national averages in both smartphone ownership and usage capabilities.
The basic ASER report survey generates district, state and national-level estimates of the enrolment status of children aged 3-16 years and the basic reading and arithmetic skills of 5-16 year old children. In this year’s report, drawn from an extensive survey of rural and urban households, older children aged 14-16 years were also surveyed about digital access and usage.
While 80.9 pc adolescents know how to use a smartphone, a gender gap persists with 83 pc of boys compared to 79 pc of girls. However, Odisha and states like UP, Karnataka and Bihar lag behind the national average of 82.2 pc in smartphone usage capabilities of adolescents.
Interestingly, girls in the age group use smartphones more for educational purposes while boys use it for social media, the report reveals. It states that while 63.9 pc girls use the devices to do any education-related activities, 79.4 pc boys use it for social media engagement. Overall, over 50 pc adolescents know how to keep their social media accounts safe - 57 pc know how to block a profile, 51.9 pc to make a profile private and 58.6 pc to change passwords.
The surveyors also gave a few tasks on use of smartphones to the students to know about their basic digital skills. The tasks were to set up an alarm for 8.30 am, browse information on the first woman President of India and find PMGDISHA module 1 on YouTube.
While 75 pc of the students in the age group could set an alarm, 71.4 pc could browse the phone for information and 93.1 pc could find and share a video.
The report points to a significant improvement in digital literacy and smartphone usage among adolescents post the Covid-19 pandemic as their access to devices, digital skills and engagement has improved.