Lakhs of govt school students in UP?still have no access to online education

Lucknow | Sunday | 9th August, 2020

Summary:

It’s been around four months since private and government schools in the state started online classes and began sharing study material through various digital platforms with their students.

However, a bulk of students coming from economically weak families is struggling to get access to it.

As many as 50% of the 1.8 crore students enrolled in government-run primary and upper primary schools spread across 75 districts of UP are yet to access the online content made available during this pandemic hit academic year, reveals information available with the state education department.

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Lucknow: It’s been around four months since private and government schools in the state started online classes and began sharing study material through various digital platforms with their students.

However, a bulk of students coming from economically weak families is struggling to get access to it.

As many as 50% of the 1.8 crore students enrolled in government-run primary and upper primary schools spread across 75 districts of UP are yet to access the online content made available during this pandemic hit academic year, reveals information available with the state education department.

A recent survey undertaken in 65 districts by the department involving 4,348 students has established that despite all efforts just 50% of them were able to access the online content, informed a senior official of the department.

The survey revealed that half of the total students were unable to access the content due to poor Net connectivity, lack of appropriate devices like smart phones or even presence of a lone smart phone in home that was needed for other purposes, the official said.

“Efforts are being made to reach even those students who are unable to access the rich and wide academic digital content made available through various mediums like YouTube, Diksha e-learning portal and WhatsApp groups among others.

We are trying to work out a system of teachers providing worksheets to such left out students to involve them in the learning process,” says Vijay Kiran Anand, director general (school education) and state project director of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan.

He said besides 1.5 lakh WhatsApp groups for students and another 880 groups of BEOs active at development block level, academic content for different classes were being provided to students through different mediums and the exercise was being monitored at the state level.