Coronavirus impact worsens India's educational divide, UN agency says
>> Manoj Kumar, Reuters
Published: 06 Oct 2021 04:34 PM BdST Updated: 06 Oct 2021 04:34 PM BdST
-
Students and teachers prepare to decorate a school following the reopening after over a year due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Mumbai, India, October 4, 2021. REUTERS
India's school closures and its children's lack of smartphone and internet facilities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic have worsened an educational divide, the UN cultural agency said, flagging risks to young people's futures.
About 248 million students were hit by school closures since March last year, UNESCO said in a report, though many Indian states have started easing curbs as infections dwindled and vaccinations rose in the last two months.
Nearly 70% of students lacked smartphones or other devices to access classes online, while a majority grappled with poor Internet facilities, or none, especially in rural areas, it added.
"There is an urgent need to plan to get students and their teachers back to school," the agency said in its report on education in India issued on Tuesday.
Almost 40% of parents could not afford internet costs, affecting learning, and so widening the educational gap between different parts of society, it said in the report, based on government data.
Widespread economic distress and job losses as people fled home to villages in the countryside have pushed families into poverty, worsening distress for children from such woes as malnutrition and early marriages for girls, the agency said.
Worst-hit were private schools that receive no government grants, but where many poor families aspiring for a better education send their children, as parents found themselves unable to pay fees after the reduced economic activity.
India's economy contracted an annual 7.3% in the fiscal year that ended in March 2021, in the worst recession since independence from colonial ruler Britain in 1947.
Salary cuts or job losses faced teachers in the private schools employing nearly 30% of India's total of 9.7 million, as many students were withdrawn or shifted to schools subsidised by the government.
UNESCO called for India to recognise teachers as "frontline workers" in the battle on the pandemic, and improve working conditions for them to ensure better outcomes in education.
"Quality of education is the core challenge of the next decade," it said.
-
China's international schools hit by exodus of teachers
-
With plunging enrolment, a ‘seismic hit’ to public schools
-
SSC, HSC exams to cover all subjects in 2023
-
‘Not good for learning’
-
Harvard details its entanglements with slavery
-
More pandemic fallout: The chronically absent student
-
Secondary, higher secondary classes until Apr 20
-
Bill passed for Pirojpur university
-
China's international schools hit by exodus of teachers dejected by COVID curbs
-
With plunging enrolment, a ‘seismic hit’ to US public schools
-
SSC, HSC exams to cover all subjects in 2023 as pandemic ebbs
-
‘Not good for learning’
-
UNICEF enrols 10,000 Rohingya refugee children in Myanmar curriculum pilot
-
Govt announces schedule for 2022 SSC exams
Most Read
- High Court denies 4 North South University trustees anticipatory bail, turns them over to police
- Teenage gunman kills 19 children and teacher at Texas elementary school
- Bangladesh names its longest bridge after Padma River as it opens on Jun 25
- Ban water taxis from ‘priceless’ Hatirjheel, High Court rules
- Bangladesh raises duty on imports as it cracks down on luxuries
- Russia launches all-out assault to encircle Ukraine troops in east
- BSMMU says no monkeypox case detected, warns of rumours
- Reserves rise slightly past $42bn as Bangladesh scrambles to calm a dwindling currency market
- Four trustees of North South University sent to jail, face grilling in embezzlement case
- Powerful American artillery enters the fight in Ukraine