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WHY INDIA’S SCHOOLS SHOULD

Digital divide in pandemic era: wide becoming wider

percent children in the 5-13 age group in six states surveyed relief package announced with great fanfare in May 2020,
for the study, haven’t accessed any remote learning content nor thereafter, has any financial relief been provided for
in the year after schools closed in March 2020. Worse, 36 the country’s 450,000 private independent (‘unaided’)
percent of girls and 33 percent boys in the age group 14-18 schools which host 47.5 percent (119 million) of school-
didn’t access remote learning content either. going children, to pay their teachers and staff. As a result a
Indeed, because of continuous under-investment in pub- huge number of the country’s unique budget private schools
lic education for over six decades after independence, the (BPS) which provide low priced education to an estimated
digital divide between rich and poor, urban and rural is 60 million children from lower middle and working class
very wide and becoming wider. According to a report in households, have gone out of business. A disproportionate
the Economic Times (June 24), official data of the Union number of their parents either self-employed or working
education ministry indicates that 70 percent of children in in MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) have
six major states of the Indian Union (Maharashtra, Madhya lost their jobs or suffered salary cuts and are unable to pay
Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and J&K) even rock-bottom (Rs.6,000-25,000 per year) fees levied
don’t have access to digital devices. As a result the number by BPS.
of children who have dropped out of the education system The sorry condition of our education system, especially
runs into millions. Consequently, the number of children in the primary-secondary school system is the outcome of
the labour force has increased exponentially, girl children newly independent India having foolishly adopted the in-
are forced into early marriage and often into prostitution, organic Soviet-inspired public sector-led capital-intensive
and crime and criminality are set to explode. economic development model propagated by the Delhi
Despite this desperate situation, neither the Central nor School of Economics, instead of the labour-intensive light
any state government has exhibited any urgency to devise goods model advocated by the Bombay school. Since then
meaningful strategies to address this ballooning crisis. Al- with government tax revenues and people’s savings in-
though teachers and staff of the country’s 1.2 million gov- vested in capital-intensive and generally loss-making public
ernment schools have been paid their full remuneration for sector enterprises (PSEs), public, i.e, government schools
over 15 months despite all schools being shuttered, neither have been continuously under-funded across the country.
the prime minister’s professedly Rs.20,000 crore pandemic For the past seven decades since independence, annual

JULY 2021 EDUCATIONWORLD 41