Smartphone availability in Karnataka is much higher than the national average
In rural Karnataka, as online classes became inevitable amid the pandemic, there has been a sharp increase in the percentage of students having a smartphone at home.
In 2018, only 43.1% of students had smartphones available in their homes. In 2020, after the pandemic hit, it rose to 68.6%. It further increased to 71.6% in 2021. This was one of the findings of the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2021 which was released on Wednesday.
Among rural students in Karnataka who reported that they had at least one smartphone available at home, 35.6% said they had access to it all the time, while 52.7 percent said they had access to it occasionally , and 11.7 per cent said that although it was available at home, they had no access.
Smartphone availability in Karnataka was much higher than the national average. Nationally, in 2021, 67.6% of students enrolled in schools had smartphones at home. This is a sharp increase as compared to 2018 when only 36.5% percentile was with students.
The ASER survey was facilitated by the NGO, Pratham.
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