There are 49,000 students in the State without digital equipment or access to digital classes, as per the preliminary data collected by Samagra Shiksha, Kerala, recently.
This comes to nearly 1% of the total number of students in the State. A good number of such students belong to Wayanad, Idukki, and Malappuram districts, say Samagra officials.
Prior to the start of digital classes last year, a survey by Samagra had found that 2.6 lakh students did not have facilities for online classes. Following government intervention, it came down to around 1.25 lakh by the time the academic year kicked off on June 1. Concerted efforts by the government machinery, people’s representatives, local bodies, voluntary organisations, institutions, and individuals helped cover almost the entire student population, they say.
Data collection to ascertain access to digital education this year took into account students who had access to TV, mobile phones, computer, or Net connectivity in their houses; those who attended the classes at Samagra Shiksha’s study centres and received support from education volunteers; and those who did not have digital facilities at their houses and could not access the classes in community centres because there were no centres in their vicinity or they could not reach these.
However, the data collected will require further validation as class 1 admissions are not over yet. Facilities available with the class 1 students and those taking admissions to other grades will have to be looked into, officials told The Hindu .
Online classes
With the General Education Department planning to launch online classes to enable direct student-teacher interactions as early as next month, availability of mobile phones, computer, laptop and Internet connectivity will have to be ensured, instead of mere television.
Samagra Shiksha, Kerala, has recommended that once the COVID-19 case numbers dwindle, the number of study centres it can be increased. Opening of ward-level study centres is another option.
