The disruption of education caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has adversely impacted children from rural India due to lack of adequate, digital, infrastructural support.
Two-thirds of all children reported that they did not have access to the Internet to be able to receive a digital education (be it learning materials or guidance in terms of what activities to do), during the pandemic.
There is huge rural and urban digital divide in India, that has severally impacted the education in rural India. During the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, as schools increasingly turned to online education, the digital divide produced stark consequences.
Many rural families in India can’t afford smartphones , laptops, computers, or the Internet. The digital divide is also impacting the capacity of children to learn and develop.
Students Don’t Own Smartphones Or Laptops
Without internet access, students can not build the required tech skills. Only 15% rural households had access to the Internet as compared to 42% of the urban households.
In urban areas, where students and teachers are acquainted with digital education and due to comparatively high income, families can easily afford digital devices for education purposes.
Also, they can afford various e-learning platforms. Due to this, such children are even excelling in skills like coding, editing, animation, content creation etc.
While that is commendable, the situation is the opposite in rural India, in most cases. Smartphones are owned by earning members of the family. Thus, students are face lots of difficulties in attending online lectures.
Urban-Rural Digital Divide Is Widening
Those who can afford smartphones face network issues. In some cases, teachers are unfamiliar with the online education technology and have been provided with no skill training.
Due to all these factors, the urban-rural digital divide in the education sector is widening, day-by-day.
In a rural family, even if a family has a smartphone and internet connection, they face a problem in attending classes because there may be more than two to three children in a family.