Smartphones provide window to learning

Bengaluru: The recently released sixteenth Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2021, shows that with schools closed down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, smartphones became the predominant source of learning with remote schooling becoming the norm.

This has also given rise to concerns about students from economically weaker sections, who do not have access to smartphones being left behind. According to the report, “Smartphone ownership has almost doubled since 2018: The availability of smartphones has increased from 36.5% in 2018 to 67.6% in 2021. However, more children in private schools have a smartphone at home (79%) as opposed to government school going children (63.7%).”

“Household economic status makes a difference in smartphone availability: As parents’ education level increases (a proxy for economic status), the likelihood that the household has a smartphone also increases. In 2021, over 80% of children with parents who have studied up to Std IX or higher had a smartphone available at home, as compared to just over 50% of children whose parents had studied till Std V or less. However, even among children whose parents are in the ‘low’ education category, over a quarter have bought a smartphone for their studies since March 2020,” the report stated. However, the report also said that the smartphone availability does not translate into access for children: Although over two thirds of all enrolled children have a smartphone at home (67.6%), over a quarter of these have no access to it (26.1%). There is also a clear pattern by grade, with more children in higher classes having access to a smartphone as compared to children in primary classes.

ASER 2021 followed up on the questions asked in ASER 2020 about the learning support provided to children at home. It said, “Learning support at home has decreased over the last year: The proportion of enrolled children who received learning support at home has decreased from three quarters of all enrolled children in 2020 to two thirds in 2021, with the sharpest drops visible among children in higher grades.” The reopening of schools has also led to a further fall in support from home, the report said.