Gram Vaani conducted a survey on the schooling crisis. Download the report here
Schools have been shut since March 2020. With cases going down across the country, many state governments are contemplating whether to reopen schools or not. Mobile Vaani put up a survey to parents to understand their views and apprehensions with regard to reopening up of schools, and to also assess the impact of the last 1.5 years of schools being shut down. The survey was conducted from August 5th to 23rd, 2021.
The questionnaire consisted of 10 multiple-choice questions.
• 1243 people participated in this survey to report about school re-opening and the impact of the lockdown on children’s learning.
• 72% of parents want to send their children to schools, while 14% are fearful of COVID and are reluctant in their wards to school. 9% said that they want to wait for the vaccination of their child. Around 5% have yet not decided or cannot comment at the moment.
• Only 17% of parents said that they have separate smartphones with the internet for their children to do online classes, while 20% said that their children share the smartphones among themselves to undertake online classes. Around 55% of parents said that either they have a single smartphone in their houses for daily use or there is no smartphone, which impedes their children from online learning.
• Among those who are able to take online classes, children face many challenges. The foremost challenge stated by 36% of parents is that teachers are not able to pay attention to each and every child during online classes, followed by 36% of parents who said that online content is hard for their children to comprehend.
• 61% of parents are of the view that children have lost interest in studies, and it has been one of the most adverse effects of children not being
able to attend school. Mobile phone addiction, poor nutrition (as children are not able to avail of Mid-day meals and Aanganwadi provisions) are other adverse effects expressed by parents.
• 39% percent further expressed that their children have dropped out in order to work and earn for the household. Another 22% dropped out for a lack of resources like school fees, smartphones and laptops.
• 57% of parents suggested that the government must ensure that all the teachers and other staff have been vaccinated to smoothly resume schools. 19% suggested that schools can resume activities with a reduced number of children in classes along with following COVID related compliances like proper sanitation, masking, and social distancing.
The Executive Summary of the Report is provided below
Contact us: Gram Vaani
contact@gramvaani.org
covid-response@gramvaani.org