A recent survey has claimed, prolonged school closures in the country due to COVID-19 have had a significant impact on children’s education. As a result, some students in rural areas are not reading at all and cannot read more than a few words. This claim is not ours, but a recent survey. In which they have claimed that due to the COVID-19 epidemic, schools closed for 17 months i.e. 500 days have had the worst effect on the education of children.
A survey conducted among children from 1362 underprivileged sections of the society has revealed that 37 percent of children in rural areas and 19 percent in urban areas are not studying at all these days. There are only 8 percent of children who are getting an online education. It has revealed this in the School Children Online and Offline Learning (School) Survey – “Locked Out: Emergency Report on School Education”.
The most surprising thing in the survey is that due to the closure of schools, the education of children has stopped. As a result, 48 percent of children in urban areas are unable to read letters and words properly. 65 percent of parents in urban areas and 70 percent of parents in rural areas say that their child’s ability to read and write has decreased after the closure of schools due to the lockdown. According to Vipul Pykara, an independent researcher associated with this survey, ”This survey shows that the situation is very serious and worrying. This indicates that we are moving towards mass illiteracy”.
The survey was conducted with more than 100 volunteers under the supervision of economists Jean Dreze, Ritika Kheda, Vipul Pykara, and Nirali Bakhala. In which university students were involved. It has been told in the same report that reports are being prepared by Azim Premji University and Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti regarding the education of children. In August, they have done this survey in 15 states and union territories, which includes states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Karnataka.
This survey was done in 1362 such households of those settlements which come from the deprived section of the society and the children of these households were studying in government schools from class 1st to 8th. Of the 1400 households selected for the survey, 60 percent were in rural areas and 60 percent of people come from Dalit, tribal society.
Highlights of School Survey 2021
What children say (in percentage) Urban Rural
continuously studying online 24% 8%
not reading at all 19% 37%
Can’t read except a few words 42% 48%
smartphone in the family 77% 51%
No smartphone to read
The survey has found that 51 percent of urban households have smartphones, but only 31 percent of children can study online because the smartphone is with the elders of the house. At the same time, only 12 percent of rural children have a smartphone available for education. At the same time, due to problems in mobile networks and expensive data, children are being deprived of education. The poor network is the main reason for the problem of online education for 57% of children in urban areas and 65% of children in rural areas.
Highlights of School Survey 2021
What Parents Say (in Percentage) Urban Rural
Online study facility 23 8
Children’s reading ability decreased 76 75
In favor of opening a school 90 97
According to the survey, online education is available to a very limited number of students. Many states did not make such arrangements in which children could continue their studies during the lockdown. Assam, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar are prominent among such states. At the same time, according to the survey, in states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Punjab, efforts were made to continue studies by giving worksheets to such children. Along with this, they also asked the teachers of these states to keep meeting the parents of such children.
Taking admission in government schools
According to the survey, in March 2020, children who were studying in private schools before the lockdown started giving online education but did not reduce the fees. The parents of the children who were unable to pay the school fees after the lockdown crisis took their children out of private schools and got them admitted to government schools. But even today there are parents of many such children who want to enroll their children in government schools but private schools are not giving them transfer certificates. These private schools are pressurizing to pay the outstanding fees first.
In the survey, when the volunteers gave this sentence to the children of classes 3 to 5 to read (the school is closed since the corona epidemic is going on). 35 percent of children in urban areas and 42 percent of children in rural areas were completely unable to read the entire sentence except a few words.
In the states where the sample survey was conducted, it was also revealed that after the closure of the schools, the midday meal given to the children was stopped. The parents of 80% of the children studying in government schools were given wheat or rice instead of a mid-day meal for three months. Some people were also given cash. But many said they got nothing. Students whose parents got something instead of a midday meal complained that they got less than their due. There is a provision of 100 grams per day for the student studying in a primary.
