'By year end, many kids will be thrown out of education system'

A report published this week by the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties PUCL analysing the impact of the COVID19 lockdown on the state of education in Maharashtra indicated that digital classrooms and compulsory examinations for final year college students were doing more harm than good for the young student communityTitled Broken Slates and Blank Screens Education Under Lockdown the 48page report has been authored by educationist filmmaker and member of PUCL Simantni Dhuru with the help of fellow member and Bombay HC advocate Lara Jesani Sandhya Gokhale John DSouza and Mihir Desai Among the many things it discusses how the lockdown has had severe implications on the rights of children and the youthAccording to a study mentioned in the report only 60 per cent households of students had laptops and desktops while 37 per cent students had just eight to 12 hours of electricity supply Only 49 per cent had Internet access indicating a deep digital divideSimantni Dhuru author of the reportThe report said that the reflection of disadvantage was even more evident with mobile phones being the main source of Internet Limitations on daily data availability and sharing of devices within family members were some of the issues that students have been facing Most important was that being adult students in graduate and postgraduate programmes the home environment are the least conducive with many members of the family confined to a small space the likely conflicts due to adjustment issues the lack of privacy to study and the demands on them for household labour the report observedSpeaking with midday Dhuru mentioned three key points in the report published by PUCLmdashfirst lack of equitable access to education next collapse of systems that provide nutrition which form an intrinsic part of RTE and lastly commercialisation and privatisation pushed heavily by using the pandemic as an excuse ie no transparency or peoples participation which is an essential component in implementation of the RTE Act When asked whether the fault lines had been created by the state or Centre she said Historically by both But in COVID19 times the state is not able to plan and function in an independent manner as many propoor reasonable acts and decisions of the state are overturned by the Centre or by courts Dhuru said that because the right to education is not equal for all and because we have a multilayered education system the education sector as a whole lacks inner resilience She said If it was a reasonably well functioning system with different sections of the society having common interests it would not have collapsed but the pandemic has affected education of childrenyouth of different sections in different ways leaving them to fight their own battles The poor are as always the worst affectedJesani said the COVID19 lockdown had highlighted the inequality in access and quality of education available to the poor as compared to the rich Without smart devices even if online learning is initiated poor students cannot avail of these facilities There is a huge number of dropouts already being reported and by the year end many students will be thrown out of the education systemRegarding the controversial and upcoming final year exams for students in Maharashtra she said Even with such a high spread of the virus UGC has insisted on final year exams being held and even the Supreme Court backed this decision It has been reported that students who attended entrance exams in Kerala and Karnatakacontracted COVID19 and in the current situation where our country is almost at one lakh cases per day mark it is nothing short of pushing students towards disease and health riskGovernment schools a nonstarterIn Maharashtras context the report noted that the government schools in the state were a nonstarter It stated that while the state had a total of 66946 government schools as against a total number of 37360 private schools the figures of enrolment were inversely proportional Despite the spread of government schools across wider geographies the enrolment in government schools is 5718528 as against the enrolment in private schools of 10182972mdashalmost 50 per cent lessKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news