ASER 2020: Nearly 25% students from rural Maharashtra have no access to smartphones for e- classes
ASER Report 2020: The data revealed that nearly 76% schools took help from their villages and community members to reach out to students during the pandemic. Nearly 64% students in government and private schools in the state said that they were given learning material and activities from their school
Nearly 25% students from rural Maharashtra have no access to mobile phones, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2020 by NGO Pratham revealed. Nearly 16% students reported that they could not get help in their studies from parents due to their poor educational backgrounds. The survey was conducted to assess the impact of Covid-19 and the resultant lockdown on the education of students across the country.
The NGO collected data from 33 districts and more than 6,800 households in the state in September 2020. Students from government and private schools in these districts were surveyed with the help of phones. As per the data, the number of enrolments in government schools in rural Maharashtra has gone up by nearly 10 percent points over the last 2 years. As opposed to 55.25% students who were enrolled in government schools in 2018, 64.4% were found to be enrolled in government schools as on 2020. At the same time, enrollments in private schools went down from 44.7% in 2018 to 35.6% this year.
Somnath Walke, teacher at the zila parishad school in Pargaon, Beed said that after Covid-19 and the resultant lockdown, enrolments in zila parishad schools are picking up. “A lot of parents who had earlier migrated to cities for work had to return back to their villages due to lack of work opportunities. Many of them enrolled their children in government schools. Similarly, some students who were travelling to private schools in nearby towns also moved to schools in their villages for safety reasons,” he added.
The data revealed that nearly 76% schools took help from their villages and community members to reach out to students during the pandemic. Nearly 64% students in government and private schools in the state said that they were given learning material and activities from their school. More than 90% students were in touch with their schools through Whatsapp. Amongst those who did not get learning resources, more than half (58%) said that the school did not send them any material. While textbooks and worksheets are the most widely used resources, only about 19% students reported attending live online classes.
