Experts give thumbs-down to govt's digital education claims
Say digital divide has widened in the country as many still can’t afford data
image for illustrative purpose
New Delhi: With the central government giving a greater push to digitized educational formats across the country, educational experts have expressed apprehensions towards the same. With regards to Economic Survey's observation on access to a smartphone by enrolled students, educational professionals said that unlike the government's claims, the digital divided has widened in the country.
"There is lot of data available on how the government handled the education sector. There have been massive closures of government schools and primary education. This is the story in all the sectors whether it is employment, education, health," said Dr Ajay Gundavarthy, Professor of Political Science at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
"The digital divide is huge in India. If you have mobile you don't have connectivity, if you have connectivity, then you don't have a proper network. In JNU, 40 per cent of our students don't have access to laptops. They have don't have enough income to purchase network data. Everything has been moved to online, classes attendance is around 25 per cent. Students are in terrible psychological stress," Dr Ajay further explained.
On Friday, the Economic Survey 202-21 observed that as more students are owning smartphones, it may resultant reduction in the digital divide between rural and urban, gender, age and income groups and is likely to reduce inequalities in educational outcomes.
Aritro Dasgupta, Mentor, Career Launcher, told Bizz Buzz that education too should be opened completely since online education is more economically feasible for the middle-class and above sections in the country.
"I agree that more students have mobile phones but I don't think it has spread as much. But I can tell you from my experience that offline mode is much more effective. For higher education, beyond 12th class or college level, the online mode can be suitable but at the primary level you need to build skills and students need to have adequate social interaction with people. They do need offline teaching," he said.
