According to estimates around 44% of students have access to e-learning using smartphones. As of June 2020 around 62% of students are impacted due to the lockdown in India
Schools in India start the academic year somewhere between April and June. When the Lockdown was announced, schools were caught unaware. It was March and the schools were not really bothered since the situation was perceived to be temporary and it was end of the academic year.
Come May and it was known that academic institutes would not be starting atleast till August. Schools who were familiar with technology or were had introduced IT in education started planning and conducting the initial mock sessions, preparation of digital content and testing of e-classes. They intended to make up for the lost time but hesitant to overwhelm the teachers with loads of technology. The others were resistant to the concept of digital classes (even there were enough resources). By end of June, almost all schools in cities (tier 1 and tier 2) and Urban areas were coerced to adopt technology to deliver learning either through digital classes (Bigbluebutton, Google Meet, Skype, Webex, Zoom) or using digital content (presentation, PDF, Images, Videos) and deliver them using ERP or Social Media ( Whatsapp, Telegram, Google classroom). This is ofcourse the happy version where it is going to end well.
The Underprivileged
A large portion of Indian population are in Rural areas and it is presumed that current situation will push the school dropout rate further
The current situation highlight five distinct challenges – Electricity, Internet, Devices, Software and the Tech skills. This is true with either those in the rural areas or those who cannot afford a featured device or smartphones. These are possibly the 62% impacted.
Government has done its best to keep the residents safe ensuring the virus does not strike the vulnerable and also by collaborating with Technology Platform giants to bring free or affordable software to the required segment. Some official bodies and individuals have taken initiatives to train the teachers on the technology and the software aspect. This solves the couple of issues more from software and delivery perspective.
The Foremost Learning Tool – Smartphones
56% students do not have access to smartphones; the most important tool to receive information wirelessly, personalized for the user.
While Laptops are recommended but they are un-affordable and difficult to maintain. Smartpohones or featured phones on the other hand range from economy to premium versions, easier to manage and requires less battery power (lesser dependency on electricity grid). Most of the learning applications are either built for mobile devices or fully responsive to the screen size, making it most loved tool for current times.
What needs to be done here is provisioning of the featured phone devices that would allow the student and teacher to communicate with each other remotely. This would greatly resolve the problem of learning. Having a smart device will enable the student to learn anywhere and anytime.
The Empowerment
We need to do it and do it fast, empower the indigent and the underprivileged of education
Our NGO partner SIMCO Foundation is leading a program to the cause. We have devised a plan to collect pre-owned reusable smartphone devices from donors and distribute them to registered students in schools in interiors of Maharashtra (phase 1).
The complete program will be transparent to the donor as well as detailed record keeping will be maintained. This program is aimed to help around 4000 to 5000 students and teachers of the schools.
The donors have been categorized to help in various stages of the program.
You can contact us for detailed information on the program activities and how you can help in the success of the program
