However, 2.2 billion people (two in three children and young people aged 25 years or less) lack an internet connection at home. Internet coverage is alarmingly scarce in low-income countries: 6% coverage compared to 87% internet coverage in high-income countries. Globally, three out of four students who can’t be reached by remote learning opportunities come from rural areas and/or poor households, which further exacerbates existing inequalities in access to education.
While countries such as the Philippines, Barbados and Argentina scored high marks on the RLRI index, more than 31 countries are unprepared to deploy remote learning during crisis times – that’s more than 200 million schoolchildren. The RLRI is also not a full picture and fails to measure challenges beyond its assessment.
Poor access to connectivity has become a powerful barrier that prevents children and young people from accessing effective and interactive forms of learning and its effects are long-reaching.
School closures impact children beyond their learning, targeting their mental health and well-being. A survey conducted by UNESCO revealed that children, worldwide, are struggling with social isolation, access to nutrition and a lack of physical exercise, all of which affect the child’s development.
The state of impact on India
In India, COVID-19 has most impacted the education of the rural and young. One in three children in classes I and II (grades 1 and 2) have never attended an in-person class during the pandemic, with the youngest learners having the “least access to technology, ”according to the 2021 Annual Status of Education Report (ASER).
Almost one-third of all children in classes I and II did not have a smartphone available at home.
Children living in rural and impoverished areas suffer even greater learning isolation.
Of 15 states and union territories, an August 2021 survey from the School Children’s Online and Offline Learning (SCHOOL) found that that only 8% of rural children were studying online regularly. Thirty seven percent were not studying at all.
Nearly half of the children in the sample were illiterate.
Two-thirds of the parents from the SCHOOL survey stated their children, unable to access schooling online, have fallen behind, with reading and writing skills in decline.
Education recovery and capacity must be a priority
As the pandemic continues to unravel, school closures and remote learning will remain a challenge, affecting a generation of children’s learning, development and well-being. Therefore, it’s critical to make education recovery a priority to avoid a generational catastrophe.
This won’t be the last global health crisis we face, so we must prioritize strengthening the resilience of education systems everywhere, starting with the countries most unprepared for mobile learning. Nations must build capacity to deliver quality education remotely, targeting vulnerable and marginalized children who are often overlooked.
To mobilize and support learning continuity, UNESCO has established the Global Education Coalition for the end goal of protecting the right to education.
We must build on lessons learned from this crisis with education worldwide, creating comprehensive preparedness plans and strong national infrastructure to deliver education through different modalities. Once the current crisis subsides, countries must continue to scale up distance learning and incorporate aspects into everyday schooling for all children and youth, so our transition into the next crisis is more seamless.
Vigilance is — and will be — essential to prevent the learning of the most vulnerable from falling through the cracks during this present crisis and future ones.
Ruma Bhargava, Project Lead, Fourth Industrial Revolution for Health, India, World Economic Forum, C4IR India
Dr Megha Bhargava, Deputy Commissioner Income Tax, Ministry of Finance, Government of India
This article was originally published in the World Economic Forum.
Also read: The world’s rising tide of data can be used for good. But first we need to share it
Source: The Print
