Online Classes in the COVID-19 era

India, a country whose priority list has always known to include wider availability of education, to the rich and poor alike, has had to undergo a transition in its schooling system in the current Covid-19 pandemic. With the abrupt increase in cases and mutation of the virus itself, regulations for wearing masks and maintaining distance are here to stay. The same goes for schools, with most of their curriculum being covered through online classes likely to continue. It is imperative to say that schools can serve as major spreading grounds, and thus, online classes seem to be a viable option to ensure the non-disruption of education. But at the same time, let us once ask ourselves, does everybody feel the same about this transition? After all, we are a country consisting of 472 million children in the school years, spanning across all the strata of the society, the abundantly rich to the miserably poor.

We cannot expect the answer to be a unanimous yes, nor a no. But in this article, we intend to give a glimpse of the extent to which heterogeneity exists in the answers, and the reasons for it, specifically in terms of those whose voices often go unheard.

Schooling for Underprivileged: The Pre-pandemic times

With about half of India’s population in the working class, education is an essential tool to help its workforce realise its true potential. Debates regarding education for the poor have always been on the high, majorly focused on improving infrastructure in Government schools, making them affordable and accessible and ultimately, incentivising education to trigger higher enrolment. The Right to Education in India guarantees free and quality education to all children aged between 6 and 14. Several schemes including ‘Samagra Shiksha’ and ‘Strengthening for Providing Quality Education in Madrassas’ (SPQEM) have also been instituted. Additional incentives like scholarships, Mid-Day Meal, and even reservations in private schools have been provided.

But in reality, the gap between policy and practice looms large. According to District Information System for Education (DISE) data, 18% of teachers in India, in 2016-17, had no professional qualification in teaching. Even when teachers are on the roll, chances are that they are absent from class. There are other impediments too – Lack of access to sanitation facilities in schools have a direct impact on student attendance, especially girls, leading to drop-outs. Lack of water, lighting and electricity and poor drainage systems, the paucity of funds for maintenance and cleanliness etc., limit the usability of WaSH (water, sanitation and hygiene) facilities in schools. Many states are yet to fulfil the norms laid down in the RTE Act, 2009. Only 28% of schools (18% of government schools) have a computer and 9% (4% government schools) have an internet connection. Separate space dedicated for playgrounds as well as boundaries, both of which feature in the Act, exhibits the largest shortfall, with 40% of schools not having a playground and 43% not having a boundary wall. The figures for laboratories for science-related subjects are even worse.

We already know that education, however cheap it gets, seems costly to the poor due to their constant struggle to satisfy even their basic survival needs. After all, the opportunity cost is in terms of the wage a child would have earned working in a factory or as house-help in multiple homes, and the family wouldn’t have to compromise on a meal. Given these circumstances and the poor conditions in schools, even if they manage to reach its gates, retention is tougher. The pandemic did away with the need to go to schools physically but exacerbated other problems faced due to an already faulty system.

Education now: Online classes in Covid

The pandemic has led to the closure of schools, along with some permanent shutdowns, and some temporary, of small and large business houses. Even now, some enterprises have reopened but not at their full capacity. Schools remain closed, and online classes have become routine. The existing gap between the rich and the poor has been widening. And lack of access to proper education has been one of the major contributors itself. With incomes dwindling due to lay-offs and reduction in employment opportunities especially for the informal/unorganised sector (majorly constituted of daily wage labourers employed for construction work and manufacturing sector and of agricultural farmers), poor households continue to struggle.

For children to attend online classes, there are two things that are essential: a device, phone or laptop or any other gadget and a stable internet connection. These seem like a commonality to a part of India’s population, urban and well-versed in technology, but the poor find it difficult to even arrange these. According to the National Sample Survey, 2017-2018, there is less than 27 per cent of Indian households have at least one member with access to the internet. Among the poorest 20 per cent of households, only 2.7 per cent have a computer and less than 9 per cent have access to the internet. The costs of internet connection are extra to the already constrained budget of poor households. Even if it is arranged, usually a single mobile phone has to be shared among many children, leading to absenteeism in classes with overlapping slots. Added to these, is the lack of disruption-free space where the child can concentrate on what is being taught. Due to these hurdles, it gets burdensome to keep up with assignments and homework and follow the course at the pace of the teachers. Parents of the children are also unfamiliar with the concept of online education and the platforms on which the classes take place. Around 70% of parents are not aware of the online reading material that has been made available free of cost for all students to help them with their studies.

Given such a state of affairs, the teacher’s role becomes increasingly cardinal in providing the required personal support to the students. But the trap comes full circle when the quality of online classes is assessed in terms of pedagogy. The teachers themselves are often found to be new and untrained to the technology required for taking classes online. Many of the Government school teachers are themselves from underprivileged backgrounds, residing in villages with a poor internet connection and receding household incomes. With such hurdles to learning through online classes, the children are bound to suffer. It is thus, not surprising, that teachers, as well as children, consider them to be a wasted effort as most of the time is eaten up in resolving network issues faced on both ends. The parents often find themselves demotivated to continue the education of their child for a future that is based on fulfilling the needs of today first. Girls suffer the most as they are forced to do household chores or even get married at a schooling age, now that they live at home for the most part of the day. This is especially true in rural India where the female literacy rate is already low. For the underprivileged to not be pushed further into poverty’s grip, it is important that these issues be addressed.

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The Road ahead

While it seems like a logical decision, to conduct online classes instead of offline schooling, it does not account for the digital disparity. Not all students have access to smartphones/internet and therefore, it is imperative to find alternatives to online learning so that all students are able to access education. Some alternatives for learning without the use of the internet can be – speakers, buddy system, radio broadcasting, snowball learning, delivery of educational materials. These have been used and tested for effectiveness in some of India’s districts. In Jharkhand, speakers have been installed depending on the number of students residing in an area. The lessons are delivered by the teacher using a microphone, and the students listen to lectures, sitting around the speakers. The buddy system basically tries to make pairs of a student and a teacher/senior residing in close proximity of one another, where the latter (buddy) can track the progress of the former. The buddy can also help the child with assignments and in keeping up with the course. Another alternative is the radio. Radios are more common and cheaper as compared to other forms of mass media electronics, especially in Indian rural households. There are approximately 104 million homes in India that have a radio – nearly double the number of homes that have a TV. In such a scenario, lessons on the radio could have a significant reach if timings are communicated to the children in advance. Snowball learning is another way of easing the process. It involves teachers teaching the course to a parent(s) or an educated child (older than the other students) beforehand personally or in very small groups, who can, in turn, teach some of the students living in the vicinity of their own homes, while following social distancing norms. To supplement these, the educational materials (books, notes etc.) can be delivered to the students physically. But even for these to work, as we can observe, it is very important that the teachers are competent and effective in their working. Thus, before opting for alternatives, we need to invest in our teachers’ ability to cope up with the given scenario by training them and keeping a strict check on their regularity and proficiency. It is important that the resources required for carrying out these plans are made available to them. Thus, with the cooperation of all stakeholders: students, teachers and parents, education can continue even in the toughest of times. Thus, it’s time, us, who are privileged enough to be heard, make it a little easier for those who aren’t. Only then can we strive together equally, as the people of one nation.