Propelling Education in Rural India & The Difficulties Teachers Face

To achieve the dream of Skilled India, there has to be an enhanced focus on upgrading the rural education system. The rise of technology, industrialization and the need for skilled manpower across industries makes it all the more important now to invest in the education sector to shape the future workforce.

The disruption of education caused by Covid-19 has impacted rural India more than expected. It has reversed their progress. Students could not cope with the new normal owing to a lack of adequate digital infrastructural support. This has created a need to provide a holistic solution to ensure quality education at the grassroots level.

The impact on students and teachers

There are countless stories of children and adults all over the country today who are doing all they can to access digital devices. They require it for education, payments, shopping, and everything. This was a change introduced owing to the pandemic.

Right from sharing smartphones, tabs, to taking on more responsibilities at home, students from low-income backgrounds have been impacted the most by the lockdowns.

Why? Owing to the digital divide. In rural areas, people are financially weak and cannot afford to purchase devices or an internet connection. Even schools in rural areas bore the brunt of the lockdowns.

There was no infrastructural support. Most rural areas do not have facilities for internet connections or a stable flow of electricity. Schools faced a lack of access to digital devices.

In digital learning, it is crucial to ensure access to accurate devices for each student to avail digital content. In rural areas, only a small section of people can access laptops or computers. Even students with access to desktops and laptops, may not have access to an internet connection.

Apart from that, the phone screens available to them are not favourable enough for long learning hours. In households with more than one child, they would have to share the device or one would have to sacrifice classes while the other learns. Lastly, the biggest prevailing problem, the unavailability of teachers who are equipped to operate digital platforms is another factor slowing the advancement of digital education. However, teachers are averse to adopting these educational methods because they lack the necessary training.

Imparting education

Bharat e-Shiksha, a flagship initiative under BharatCares, aims to make quality education accessible to underprivileged students through a network of digitally-empowered Bharat e-Shiksha Volunteers (BEVs). Under this initiative, they support teachers and children in remote areas or urban slums by providing content-loaded tablets or content-loaded smart televisions to provide access to digital devices and mentored learning.

Who are BEVs?

BEVs are educators/volunteers with rich teaching experience. They are the true agents of change-making a real difference in tackling one of India’s most pressing challenges — educational inequity due to the digital divide.

The BEVs role varies from conducting baseline research to identifying potential learners. They ensure at least 6 hours of learning sessions for each child or class. Three hours are through e-learning devices and the other three are through mentored learning.