Maharashtra: 16 per cent students without digital learning access

Across Maharashtra, there are 15.60 per cent students who lack access to any of the facilities. Representation Pic

The state government's education department may have ambitious plans of starting the academic year with digital learning with the help from easily accessible mediums such as television and radio. However, its own data shows that nearly 16 per cent of students from state-board affiliated schools do not have access to any medium of communication. In fact, even in cities like Mumbai and Pune - 5 to 10 per cent of students have no access to any medium including television and radio.

The data collated by the state government's education department reveals the ground conditions and shows how executing digital learning is going to be a difficult task.

According to the data, in Mumbai, there are a total of 70.33 per cent students who have access to WhatsApp whereas 17.16 students communicate through text messages and 79.74 per cent have access to television.

Also, 12.51 per cent of candidates don't have mobile phones and 3.58 per cent of candidates do not have access to any facility. Across Maharashtra, there are 15.60 per cent students who lack access to any of the facilities. Uday Samant, state education minister had stated that private television channels will also be used to impart education with techniques that are based on application-based self-learning.

While the data reveals how difficult it is going for the state government to execute its ambitious plans of imparting education through unconventional ways, the delay in declaring Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for schools in the Red Zone is causing a major confusion in several cities. School administrations in Mumbai, Pune are currently unsure about when they should begin the academic year.

Earlier this week, the state government declared SOPs for reopening schools for the new academic years - especially focusing at those areas where no COVID-19 cases were reported in the past one month while adding that there would be separate SOP for Red Zones in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Solapur.

However, the document is yet to be issued thereby leading to major confusion among schools and teachers, including parents who are worried about sending children to schools.

When contacted Commissioner of Education, Vishal Solanki, said, "Those separate SOPs for Red Zones will be issued soon."

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