By Sujata Jena
Bhubaneswar, Oct 22, 2021: The protracted lockdown and closure of schools have adversely affected the education of Dalit and Tribal students in rural areas, a study reveals.
A discussion on the impact of prolonged school closure and sharing of the survey report, ‘Locked Out,’ was held October 19 at National Social Work and Social Science, Bhubaneswar, capital of Odisha state in eastern India.
As many as 45 activists and intellectuals from different fields participated in the discussion.
The emergency study on education was led by a team of professors — Jean Drezee and Reetika Khera.
Economist Khera presented some major findings of the study.
According to her, “Only 4 percent of rural Scheduled Caste (SC)/Scheduled Tribe (ST) children are studying online regularly, compared with 15 percent among other rural children.
“Barely half of them were able to read more than a few letters in the reading test. Among rural SC/ST parents, a full 98 percent wanted schools to reopen as soon as possible,” Khera said.
She added, “When we asked whether they wanted schools to reopen, most of them felt that the answer was self-evident. As one startled mother put it, in Hindu, “Do you need to ask this question?”
“In rural areas, only 28 percent children were studying regularly at the time of the survey, and 37 percent were not studying at all. The results of a simple reading test are particularly alarming: nearly half of all children in the sample were unable to read more than a few words,” the survey revealed.
One reason for this, Khera said, was that many households had no access to smartphones.
“Even among households with a smartphone, the proportion of children who are studying online regularly is just 31% in urban areas and 15% in rural areas.
The study reveals, in rural areas, only 8 percent of sample children are studying online regularly, 37 percent are not studying at all, and about half are unable to read more than a few words.
The survey found, “illiteracy rate” in the 10-14 age group among rural SC/ST households in the school sample (39 percent) is more than four times as high as the average for all children aged 10-14 in the school states ten years ago (9 percent).” It adds such are the combined effects of chronic inequality and a lopsided lockout.
Midday meals have been discontinued in all the sample states with the closure of schools. Among parents with a child enrolled in a government school, about 80 percent reported receiving some food (mainly rice or wheat) during the preceding three months as a substitute for their child’s midday meals.
Other issues of online access are “poor connectivity and lack of money for “data”.
As many as 57 percent of urban children and 65% of rural children in the sample reported “connectivity problems in online classes. Many found it difficult to follow online material with 46 percent of the urban sample and 43 percent of the rural sample reporting this issue.”
The survey conducted in 15 states and Union Territories in August has shown that 97 percent of parents of underprivileged children in rural India want schools to reopen as soon as possible.