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As the Parliament's Monsoon Session for 2021 began today, the Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan was asked questions pertaining to education of children amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. He was asked whether the Government has conducted any study on the impact of Covid-19 induced disruption on the education of students.

The Education Minister’s answer dated July 19, 2021, stated that a survey conducted by all States and Union Territories on children without digital devices revealed that Bihar suffered the worst in this category with 1,43,36,007 children without digital devices to access online education.

The shocking data also reveals that Bihar is followed by Jharkhand with 32,52,255 children deprived of an education due to the digital divide, followed by Karnataka with 31,31,098 students. In terms of percentage, Chhattisgarh has around 28.27 percent of children without digital devices, Delhi has 4 percent, Punjab has 42.8 percent and Jammu & Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh have a whopping 70 percent of students lagging behind.

Here are some other figures from the answer provided by Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan:

The Minister could not provide data for West Bengal for the survey is in progress. Further, there is also no data from Andamans, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra, Manipur, and Uttar Pradesh. Surprisingly, the data also suggests that no single child is deprived of any devices in Rajasthan. But a Times of India report stated that out of 1,06,420 schools in the state, only 46,965 have computers and 38,651 have internet connection.

The impact of Covid-19 has been devastating for children, especially for the children in the rural areas. As per a UNICEF report, the closure of 1.5 million schools due to the pandemic and the resultant lockdown in 2020, impacted 247 million children enrolled in elementary and secondary schools in India.

According to ThePrint, ChildFund released an assessment report titled, ‘Perception, Fears and Readiness for Reopening of Schools’ this year that carried out a survey in 20 backward districts in 10 states - Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal in November 2020. The key finding of this report was that around 64 percent of children expressed the need for support regarding extra classes to cover the learning gaps and removal of the burden of exams for the year 2021.

Further, teachers stated that a further delay in opening of schools will increase the dropout rates of girls (47%), child labour (52%), and widen the learning gap (57%).

The answer may be read here: 

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