Slums and villages without internet: Indian students without education

Out of 320 million young people of school age, only 23.8% have access to the internet. 66% of the Indian population lives in rural areas, where internet access is limited to 14.9% of the population. Teaching under bridges, or with speakers. Private schools risk closure due to late payment of tuition fees.

New Delhi (AsiaNews) - For at least five months, students in India have been studying online. A substantial part of them manage to access lessons from their teachers, but a large number of the poor are unable to participate in anything.

During the lockdown, schooling has become a major problem. Most Indian states have launched online classes, but herein lies the question: boys and girls from poor families are unable to equip themselves with expensive laptops, or smartphones and other electronic gadgets that are needed for online sessions. 

In addition to unemployment, created with the blocking of activities, the problem of families is that it is not so easy to find telephone  and wifi coverage; there are places in the country where there is not even electricity.

In the states of North India, attempts are being made to address the problem in various ways. Public (state) schools do not have all the facilities of private schools. And it is impressive what some very dedicated teachers are doing to ensure that their students study.

In Jharkhand, for example, Shyam Kishore Singh Gandhi, principal of a public school, has decided to use loudspeakers to teach his students: he goes around the village with the loudspeaker and the students listen in front of their house (photo 2) .

Satyendra pal Shakya, a university student, offers lessons to children in the slums of Delhi. His class is outdoors: under the pillars of a subway bridge (photo 3). At first there were only a few children, but now the presence has multiplied.

Out of 320 million young people of school age, only 23.8% had internet access in 2017-18; now the percentage has risen to 20-26%. It should be taken into account that 66% of the Indian population lives in rural areas, where internet access is limited to 14.9% of the population.

According to the All India Survey on Higher Secondary Education, in 2016 there were 799 universities, 39071 colleges, 11923 educational institutions, which gathered over 30 million students. But only 1.5% of colleges in India are equipped with tools for online learning. The government is trying to address this problem by launching e-Vidhya (an online education platform), to enable multimedia learning. But the infrastructures have to be built and in the meantime, India, which claims to be a "digital" country, is revealing the dark underbelly that risks depriving the younger generations of modern education.

Parents also suffer from the problems of raising their children. Since the lessons, the notes, the exams are all conducted online, using social network applications, parents are forced to lend their electronic tools to their children and this affects the work of the parents. The issue is very serious especially for families who have more than two children.

The lack of work has also created a drastic reduction in family income, putting the payment of school fees in crisis. The government intervened by guaranteeing longer deadlines. But this is causing a crisis in finances, especially in the administration of private schools: with the delay in tuition, there is also a delay in the payment of salaries to teachers. In most private schools, monthly wages have been cut by 50%, with survival problems for teachers and school employees. Some private schools are now in danger of closing forever.

Fr Anson, Cmi, councilor for education in the province of Coimbatore, confirms to AsiaNews: “We do all the lessons online. But many administrations of private schools in Tamil Nadu are struggling to survive, due to financial problems such as lack of income and delays in paying staff ... Despite everything, we try to give quality education for our children, using the social media where possible".