Plummeting Rate of Rural Education in India Due to Pandemic

How pandemic has shaped and impacted education in rural India due to the plausible causes behind it calls for the mitigation measure to be taken up.

The rate of penetration of educational institutes in rural India is already scarce. Compared to the urban counterpart where the number of schools are more within a kilometre range than there’s the number of schools in certain villages. Despite such stark differences, a maximum number of the Indian population lives in villages. The augment of pandemic and shutting down of schools across the globe has created a gap between the rich and the poor in accessing education. How pandemic affected the rural education in India is discussed here:

The digital divide:

Since March of 2020, schools across the nation were shut down to contain the spread of the virus. It was indeed a great effort to contain the virus, especially to protect the most vulnerable population – children. However, this step had a resounding drawback that was and will be felt across the world for a few upcoming years. As life moved to the digital medium, education too was moved to the digital platform. But this historic shift just highlighted and broaden the digital divide is prevalent in urban and rural India. It is recorded that only 24% of Indian households have access to mobile phones. Thus, students who belong to the lower strata of income couldn’t actively get access to education for approx two years. This had a spiralling effect on rural education in India, and here is where the NGO staffs enter with their specially set up classes for the students to continue their studies. 

Rising number of dropouts:

After the pandemic hit, the entire country went into complete lockdown. This stopped all economic activities except a few emergencies services that were open. This had a trickling impact on rural education in India. Pushing many families to the brink of poverty. To help support their families, many students dropped out of school and took up odd jobs. Resulting in the growth of child labour among rural dwellers.

The staggering rate of girl students dropout:

As the pandemic’s ugly economic brunt hit families, it has invariably put a pause on female students’ dropouts. It’s a popular and prejudiced behaviour of Indian families to put a halt to the progress of the girl child and support the boy child instead. This collective mentality has raised the staggering rate of girl students dropping out in India. Especially, in states that are as per literacy rates are backward. Setting back rural education in India years behind.

Lack of technologically trained teachers:

It is not just students who were not ready for this pandemic but also teachers. Teachers had to re-design their method of teaching that suits the new digital world, and since most of them could not, so it has affected their efficiency in imparting knowledge. The number of teachers against each student is already low and the ratio of technologically trained teachers against untrained teachers is even lower. Some had to learn a new skill altogether. This further widens the exigency as the pool of technically sound teachers is largely located in urban areas.

This is why efforts need to be quadrupled when compared to the pre-pandemic era. Re-admission of students in rural India back to school as per the previously set goals of rural education in India. To reach this number, not just governmental agencies but also non-governmental agencies also need to set up. This can be if the society at large debarring borders come together to alleviate each other for all of our collective future – our children.

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Created on May 12th 2022 10:03. Viewed 214 times.

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