37 percent in rural areas, 19 percent in urban students are not studying at all: Survey

The School Children Online and Offline Learning (School) survey, titled “Lockdown: Emergency report on school educationAbout 1,400 students from disadvantaged families were covered in August across 15 states and union territories. It was released on Monday.

“The picture that emerges from this survey is absolutely depressing. In rural areas, at the time of the survey, only 28% of children were reading regularly, and 37% were not reading at all. The results of a simple reading test were particularly Dangerous from the Heart: Nearly half of all children in the sample were unable to read more than a few words.”

The survey claimed that the figures for students who read regularly, did not read at all and were unable to read more than a few words in urban areas were 47%, 19% and 42% respectively.

The main findings of the school survey focused on relatively disadvantaged settlements where children usually attend government schools.

Schools and other educational institutions across the country have been closed for more than a year and a half since the start of the pandemic. After a significant improvement in the COVID-19 situation, several states are reopening schools in a phased manner from September.

According to the report, the proportion of children studying online regularly in urban and rural areas was 24% and 8% respectively.

Lack of money, poor connectivity, or no access to smartphones were some of the reasons behind the “very limited” access to online education among the sample students, the survey said.

“One reason for this is that many sample households (nearly half in rural areas) do not have a smartphone. But this is just the first hurdle: even in homes with smartphones, children regularly study online. The ratio is just 31 percent. Urban areas and 15% in rural areas. Smartphones are often used by working adults, and may or may not be available to school children, especially younger siblings. (Only 9% of all school children surveyed had their own smartphones),” it explained.

The survey claimed that even among disadvantaged households, the figures for Dalit and Adivasi families were “much worse” than others, be it online education, regular study or reading ability.

For example, only “four percent” of rural SC/ST children were studying online regularly, compared to 15% among other rural children. Barely half of them were able to read more than a few letters in the reading test, the survey said.

According to the survey, most of the parents felt that their child’s ability to read and write has declined during the lockdown. Even among urban parents with “online kids,” the proportion of those who felt that way was as high as “65%.”

“Across the entire sample, only 4% of parents felt their child’s reading and writing abilities improved during the lockdown – something that should have been the norm. Proportion of parents who felt their child had substantial online access to 23% in urban areas and 8% in rural areas,” it said.

Among rural SC/ST parents, a whopping “98%” wanted schools to reopen as soon as possible.

However, according to the report, the reopening of schools, which is still under debate, is just a “first step” and will take years of patient work to “fix this damage”.

“Even the preparations for that first step (such as repair of school buildings, issuing safety guidelines, training teachers, enrollment drives) are almost invisible in many states. After that, the schooling system should not only enable children need to go through an extended transition period in order to catch up with a proper course, but to restore their psychological, social and nutritional well-being.As things stand, the system goes on business as usual. Moving towards when schools do reopen – it’s a recipe for disaster,” it warned.

The survey, conducted in 15 states and union territories including Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, was a combined effort of around 100 volunteers from across the country. The report was prepared by a coordinating team, which included economists Jean Dreze and Nirali Bakhala.