-The Indian Express ASER report flags burden of digital inequality on children, and opportunity for government schools. The digital pivot in India’s schooling system risks pushing it into deeper inequality, seven months after schools shut down across the country to tackle the pandemic. A majority of children without access to internet has been thrown into distress — a handful to the point of self-harm, as several reports in this newspaper attest —...

-The Hindu In the week of the survey in September, about one in three rural children had done no learning activity at all. About 20% of rural children have no textbooks at home, according to the Annual State of Education Report (ASER) survey conducted in September, the sixth month of school closures due to COVID-19 across the country. In Andhra Pradesh, less than 35% of children had textbooks, and only 60% had...

-Livemint.com * States like Maharashtra, Gujarat, MP, and Tripura, who have reported more than 30 percentage points in the proportion of children whose families own a smartphone include * There is limited evidence on the extent to which this content is reaching children and the impact it is having on their learning NEW DELHI: Notwithstanding the huge push, only one third of India’s school children are pursuing online education and a smaller cohort...

-The Indian Express Several students of Government School Dhanas dropped out as they could not afford smartphones, as now one's access to education depends majorly on it Chandigarh: Bhawna, a student of standard XII at Government School, Dhanas, has been living with her grandfather (80) since her parents passed away, when she was five-years-old. Her grandfather, now 80, makes a living by selling vegetables on a rehri. Barely able to make ends...

-The Indian Express According to the survey, about 28 per cent of a total of 35,000 students, teachers, principals and parents cited intermittent and lack of power as a major hindrance. ABOUT 27 per cent of students don’t have smartphones and laptops to access online classes amid the Covid school shutdown. But among those who do, most find online learning either “joyful” or “satisfactory”, although mathematics and science are the toughest to...