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Prakash (name changed), a student of Sitalpathar High School in Assam’s Golaghat district, is not sure if he will even go back to his school when it is reopened after the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic situation improves. However, he is nurturing a dream to buy a smartphone with the money he has started earning as a daily wage earner so that his sister can attend online classes.
“I am quite happy. My friend Pratima has to wear her school shirt and do online classes every day. But my holidays never seem to end. The master (teacher) told us it might last many more months. Once I make enough money, I will buy a phone so that my sister can study online too”, Prakash tells nezine.com when asked if he has attended any online classes during and after the lockdown period. He showed a Two Hundred rupee note he had earned after working throughout the day with a local contractor while sharing his dream. Prakash’s family belonging to an Adivasi community lives in Sitalpathar which forms part of Balijan tea estate.
Photo--Abhishek Kabra
Stories of exclusion from online education system, introduced during the lockdown, galore. Digital divide has left out more students belonging to underprivileged communities in rural Assam from the online mode of education. As compared to private educational institutions the deprivation is much more in case of students of government-run educational institutions in rural areas. The suicide note of a 15-year old boy from Tukrajhar High School in Chirang district, who was found hanging from a tree one night, read about the stress he was in, because of not having a smartphone.
According to The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator Report October- December,2019, Rural Internet Subscribers per 100 population in India is only 29.83. The data included in this report released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in June 2020 show that there are 27.47 internet subscribers per 100 population in rural areas against 100.97 internet subscribers per 100 population in urban areas in Assam. Over 86 percent of the people of Assam lives in rural areas.
Photo--Abhishek Kabra
Suresh Bawri, a student of Negheriting High School of the District laments his current situation of helplessness by saying that even buying a refill for his pen or a pencil has become exceedingly difficult for his mother. “I understand that our schools are not opening shortly and online seems to be the only way out, but we are facing problems for even rice and daily meals. We have a phone but that is a small one (not a smartphone) and it is impossible to attend classes like this,” he says.
The students belonging to Adivasi families working tea gardens or earning livelihood as farmers are facing multifaceted problems ranging from acquiring their daily meal, e-accessibility, poor network connectivity and to add to all that, the absence of the minimum nutrition that they get in other days at their school. In Seleng Tea Estate of Jorhat District, a mother of two children, while plucking tea leaves almost broke down narrating that lockdown had even curbed the little money she had. Her husband stole all the money and spent the same on liquor. This resulted in domestic violence and many times she was forced to leave her home with children during midnight. The dreams of maintaining an academic flow is not mere an issue of technological accessibility but also, of an unhealthy environment that can never harbour education.
A random survey conducted among Adivasi families in the tea gardens under Assam Tea Corporation in Golaghat District showed that 58 percent of the girls, who used to go to school studying in class 8-10, have started working as house-maids in a few homes, being uncertain of their future.
Even in this situation of physical and mental struggle for the majority, in complete contrary, many urban private schools have even started online physical education classes. A teacher of one such private school from Jorhat said that nothing much have changed for their students; ironically, the school has started everything except online classes for swimming.
nzine.com file photo
A teacher from a primary school at Fuloni, a village in Rangachahi of Majuli described how the students belonging to poor and the downtrodden families remained excluded from online mode of classes. Out of 30 students in their school, they could form a WhatsApp group of only five of them. A few of the other students started visiting their homes to study and listen to the audio or video instructions by their teachers. But this process did not just violate the Covid-19 instructions, but also, made almost 83% of the class deprived and devoid of any learning. The situation is even hopeless with for many schools in areas with zero-internet connectivity. And it was also not possible for the students to go for their lessons through television because only one out of 30 students had a TV set at home.
A random survey conducted in Government Schools of 20 Districts from the state, brought to light that that the teachers are trying hard to reach out to the students. In many Districts, the School Inspectors have issued guidelines for online exams too. But, in spite of the initiatives, the schools are finding it hard to ensure 100 percent students’ inclusiveness. A teacher from Korotipar Gram Panchayat in Majuli refrained from conducting any online classes as 30 per cent students had no access to internet and would have resulted in widening the existing gaps in accessibility with the rest 70 per cent students.
The flood situation has only compounded the problems and in some urban areas causing disruption in the connectivity due to long hours of electrical shutdown. Even before floods arrived, Bogi, a mother of three children from a Chapori in Dergaon stated, “We somehow managed to buy one smart phone. Our children started going to the field for the online classes as there was a little network available. But two of them had classes almost in the same time. I talked to the Master (Teacher) and he said that he will do something with the timings. However, till that problem is solved, we have asked our daughter to let her brothers have the first take over studies.”
Online Classes have also enhanced the role of parents. Specially in the lower primary classes, the students could not grasp the instructions of the teachers and hence, a larger part of the interpretations had to be done by the parents. With mere 27 percent rural Assam’s connectivity to Internet, the roles of teachers of LP Schools have seen a gradual shift from teaching to that of delivering the monthly rations to each of the students to ensure the minimum nutritional delivery to them.
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