As schools across the country start their new academic session online, two out of five parents (43%), according to a survey, feel they don’t have adequate hardware for their wards to participate in virtual classes from home.
Most of them are struggling to buy computers and tablets for their children because of the lockdown and want gadgets required to attend online classes or work from home added to the “essential” list of items so they can buy them from e-tailers.
Earlier, there was a discussion about rescheduling the academic session from April to June due to the Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown. However, upon MHRD’s directive, CBSE decided to start virtual classes.
While some schools went online last week, many others are due to start their classes next week using platforms like Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom and Zoom. This would require parents to give their wards a computer or tablet with internet.
To find out the percentage of parents who currently don’t have the necessary infrastructure for online classes, LocalCircles conducted a survey in which there were over 23,000 respondents from 203 districts of the country.
In all, 43% parents and grandparents felt they don’t have adequate hardware for their wards to participate in online classes from home. The other 57% said they had all the hardware, like computer, tablet, printer, router, etc, for the purpose.
A few parents of children whose online classes started last week said they were letting their wards use their computer and compromising on their work from home. Others expressed concerns that the mobile screen was too small for interacting with teachers and not the right solution.
Ashok Pandey, director, Ahlcon group of schools, said, “Hardware has become an essential commodity. We need to divide and share resources as buying is not an option right now. Some kind of adjustment in households is necessary. By and large, preference is given to connecting children to schools, with parents compromising on their need. We are not looking for perfection at this stage. With a little bit of compromise, we have to see how optimally can the available technology be used for overall cognitive well-being of children.”
Feedback was also sought from the respondents from an e-commerce point of view. While 8% said they needed to buy gadgets for online classes or work f rom home, 4% said mobile phones were needed. This indicates that opening delivery of such items is the need of the hour. LocalCircles will be sharing the details of the survey with various government stakeholders.
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