Page 64 - EducationWorld Oct 2021

Special Report

IT capital lamentations “Bottom-of-pyramid households in the

city are struggling to buy digital gadgets
Indranil Roy Choudhury, senior IT man- to continue their children’s schooling.
ager and father of two children (11 The state government should have
& six): “For the past one year I have taken proactive steps to provide digital
been helplessly watching my chil- devices and Internet connectivity to poor households.”
dren struggle with impersonal online
classes. Worsening the situation in Vihaan, class V student: “My online
India’s IT capital are the constant Internet connectivity blips classes are often disrupted because
at home and server outages at school.” of unstable Internet connection. I
miss going to school and meeting my
Kavitha Reddy, social worker: “The challenges friends.”
of online education are affordability, access,
efficacy, and holistic learning. Due to un- Nabeel Baig, corporate trainer, counsellor &
affordability of digital devices and Internet motivational speaker: “The pandemic has
connectivity, thousands of children from exposed Bengaluru’s deep digital divide.
low-income households in Bengaluru have Lakhs of children have missed out on an en-
dropped out of school, and have been driven to join the labour tire year of schooling because their parents
force. This is a major social injustice.” couldn’t afford digital devices and Internet
connections. Reopening schools for all classes with adequate
Vinita Kaul, social volunteer, HR consultant, and mother of two: safeguards is an urgent necessity.”

schools with digital infrastructure, the poration didn’t bother to even respond
government has encouraged education to our offer. The city’s IT companies,
discrimination by not allowing schools edtech firms and public are ready, will-
to reopen for over 16 months. It knows ing and able to contribute to bridging
very well that parents from low-income the digital divide in education. All that’s
households cannot afford digital de- needed is for government to show some
vices and the Internet, but still contin- leadership and put together a task force
ues to mandate online schooling for to implement a mass digital learning
primary schools. Our demand is that provision plan. Unfortunately it has
all schools stop online instruction and failed to do so,” says Sait, an alumnus
immediately reopen all classes,” says of Ramaiah Institute of Technology,
B.N. Yogananda, general secretary, Bengaluru, who founded Tech Avant-
RTE Students & Parents Association Garde in 2013. Currently, the company
(RTE-STUPA) and the Karnataka Pri- provides Microsoft Education solutions
vate School Parents Associations’ Co- to 22,000 schools countrywide.
ordination Committee. Sait: leadership lacuna official indifference to education that
Indeed, it’s a measure of pervasive
L IKEWISE ALI SAIT, found- tion. During the lockdown of govern- instead of addressing the challenge of

er-CEO of the Bengaluru-
providing government school children
based Tech Avant-Garde
down, the BJP-led state government
government made huge savings under
Pvt. Ltd, global partner of ment schools for over 18 months, the access to online classes during the lock-
Microsoft Education, faults the state the heads of mid-day meals, textbooks has been preoccupied with targeting
government for widening the digital and uniforms. These savings should private school managements to reduce
education divide during the pandemic. have been deployed for purchasing their fees. In January 2021, the state
“The government has shown com- digital devices for children. Moreover government issued an order to private
plete lack of imagination in managing to continue children’s learning, it could schools to reduce tuition fees pay-
the education crisis precipitated by the have collaborated with edtech compa- able by parents for the academic year
Covid-19 pandemic. Instead of bridging nies. For instance, we made an offer to 2020-21 by 30 percent. Subsequently,
the digital education divide, it has wid- provide the Microsoft Teams platforms a Karnataka high court order dated
ened it by conspicuous failure to enable free-of-charge to Bengaluru’s local gov- September 16 reduced the fees cut to
poor children to access online educa- ernment schools, but the municipal cor- 15 percent.

64 EDUCATIONWORLD OCTOBER 2021