-The Hindu/ PTI Online education is not an option for all as only one in four children has access to digital devices and Internet connectivity, the study says. Closure of 1.5 million schools due to coronavirus pandemic and the resultant lockdowns in 2020 impacted 247 million children enrolled in elementary and secondary schools in India, a UNICEF report has found.  Globally, schools for more than 168 million children have been completely closed for...

-The Hindu Bengaluru schools are working with teachers and parents to help students overcome screen fatigue The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has not only upended the way we socialise or interact with each other, but has also altered the learning patterns of lakhs of students with online classes becoming the norm. For the last nine months, students in private schools have been glued to their screens for hours on end where otherwise they would...

-The Indian Express A recent order, issued on January 15 asks all government entities, including publicly funded educational institutions and universities, to “seek approval” of the respective “administrative Secretary” for organizing any “online/virtual international conferences/ seminars/ training etc”. India’s two largest and oldest science academies have written to the Ministry of Education — and the third is considering joining in — to say that its recent order mandating institutions to seek Government...

-Hindustan Times The data, culled from the education department of Delhi, and civic bodies that run the municipal schools, shows that these children have simply fallen off the map -- the schools say they can’t trace them. Over 166,000 students in Delhi’s government and municipal schools are missing, the impact of education moving online as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The number is roughly 8.5% of the students enrolled in the...

-The Indian Express Although there has been a lot of public discussion on digital modes of education for school children, online and video classes catered largely to urban or educated elite populations whose children went to private schools. In India, school closures post the spread of the pandemic started as early as March 2020. As months went by, concerns increased: Would learning levels drop, existing inequalities deepen? The Annual Status of Education...