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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Digital divide may turn shift to online classes operational nightmare, warn experts

-PTI/ The Indian Express

As per official statistics, there are over 35 crore students in the country. However, it is not clear as to how many of them have access to digital devices and Internet.

From virtual classes to open-book exams, the coronavirus pandemic may have forced classroom learning online but the digital divide in the country may turn it into an “operational nightmare”, experts have warned.

Suicide by a Kerala schoolgirl allegedly over not having access to a smartphone to attend classes, stories of students in remote areas having to sit on rooftops to catch Internet, siblings competing to get their parents’ gadgets are just a few case studies of the existing “worrisome” digital divide, they said.

According to the Key Indicators of Household Social Consumption on Education in India report, based on the 2017-18 National Sample Survey, less than 15 per cent of rural Indian households have access to Internet as opposed to 42 per cent in urban households. A mere 13 per cent of people surveyed (aged above five) in rural areas — just 8.5 per cent female — could use the Internet. The poorest households cannot afford a smartphone or a computer, according to the survey.

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