 With the ongoing pandemic, education has been pushed to go online. The central government and most of the state governments are encouraging online education, but without ensuring the accessibility of the internet for the students. Pushing online education in a digitally divided society reinforces the existing social exclusion of the marginalized sections, including those living in rural India, particularly Dalits and Adiosis. Aisha Narasen, an educationist from Tamil Nadu, talks to NewsClick about the digital divide and its effect. When we talk about the national level, the digital divide is a very alarming issue. India is not required for this online education and all, so it's quite obvious when we look at the numbers. See, when you talk about the smartphone usage, 71% of the smartphone usage is better, only in 4 states. In all other states, you are getting 41% only. So even at the ordinary gasket level, we can say that 20% of children are out of these online education. When India actually started its pandemic and that lockdown, take for example on 24th of March. From 24th of March up to this day, the private schools and also the universities, the colleges, they are making one cry about what they are doing, about the online education, etc. But you know, this is a big divide. According to the 2011 consensus, the consensus that we have taken, the consensus arrived at the statistical experts I am talking about. It is about 2.5 crore students all over India. All over India, it is believed that there are more than about 15 to 20 crore students. But unfortunately, 2.5 crore students, they are the people who are actually at the middle class level on which they are able to afford anything like, you know, when you call, for example, the gadgets at home, computers, connections, like that. But when you take, you know, when you elaborate it slightly, you can see that even the middle class is today divided into 3. There is one something called the lower middle class, upper middle class. There is something called the average. When you talk about that and think about the children, what actually and how, what they are doing, there are 5 types of children in India. The first type of children is the one, the meager amount of number of children who are at home waiting for the online class. When you talk about the majority of children, there are 4 types. One is the immigrant child, which is, you know, walking and walking, you are seeing it in all the media. Now the media attention is not on them. But I came to know that 20% area is even the walking country. Number 2, the second type of child is the one. Who is at home because these schools are closed. When you are closing the school, you are closing the midday meals also. That's a pathetic thing in India. It has not happened in other countries. So, they are at home, they don't have better food and the parents are, you know, in a very pathetic condition. They are fighting and always there is a big problem at home. It's the second type of child. The third type of child is going along with the parent, either for kitchen, if it is in the, you know, coastal area. They are having a long coastal area and they are also working in the vegetable shops and the ordinary cooking shops and hotels to help the economic condition of the force. The final type of child either is having COVID-19 or it is living in the area where there is COVID-19 problem. These five types of children, first type of child which is at home, which is actually in the upper middle class area, they are alone now, they are affordable. Even in that affordable set, what we are seeing is 76% of the students that national statistical organization has come out with their data which was asked by RTA recently. 76% of the children of rural India aged from 5 to 20, they are not knowing the usage of funds. This is a real pathetic picture. When you talk about the national statistics of this data, 80% students who are inside the online education today, they are having inconvenience. For example, at the primary level, 6.8% of home in India, they have at least one gadget, a smartphone like that. And in the upper middle students, that is from, you know, talking and 6, 7, 8 standards, 7.2% only. When you go to the higher secondary level, 11th and 12th, 15% only. With this percentage of people, you know, having gadgets at home, how can you claim, as the government has claimed and as the private sector has claimed, that online education has come to stay like this, it's like that. Big pictures of the metro cycle interfered into the problem. And there was, you know, more than about 40 to 2 days of argument in the court. And the madrasa I court asked the government of Tamil Nadu to set one committee that can look into this matter. Now you can see that because there is a delay in deciding what to do. Number one, number two, the government committee has submitted papers. They have not submitted papers on how they are going to take the education to the non-education area. That is, the people who are really suffering. The rural, those people who are living in the hillstops, you would have seen pictures, children going to the tree trough, shop, stop, and all to know about this and that. A lot of people in India, in that area. They are not like real classes. And it cannot happen. The government committee has not come out with what they are going to do with other children. They have come out rather about to be private sector students regarding some rules and regulations, 61 points of what to do with it. Some schools, I know, they are conducting these online classes just like schools. They start by 9 o'clock, interval, lunch, till evening. It is actually of no use. Children can be put the gadgets or the symptoms. That is what they can do here. But the Madras High Court was very clear in one thing. The High Court cleared off the fees-paying thing regarding the private schools. Allowing the private schools collecting 40% of the fees during the pandemic for their online classes. So this has made a very important and disastrous thing in Tamil Nadu. There has been a lot of suicides by children regarding a pressure, regarding a lot of stress, and especially in the lower middle class children. And what has happened now? You can see very clearly. In rural areas, about 16 lakh children have migrated to the Tamil schools. This has happened in Tamil Nadu. This is happening in the local state because the parents are not able to buy cell phones, even cell phones, because they are not able to connect with the online education. So what they are doing? They are entering into the government sector where there is no online class in the country. The government has climbed the government of Tamil Nadu especially. They are going to have classes on television and such classes are in a boat class on television. And these classes, either the children are attending or they are seeing no attendance or evidence. And the children cannot actually respond to what the lesson is taught. The lesson cannot be taught like that. People are asking why I don't listen to them. I am telling them in return, but I don't understand. How should I go to school? I like it, how? When I go to school, I understand. They will tell me everything. They will tell me whatever I ask. In the online class, they send me books only. In the class only. Because in the online class I don't understand. Only my mother has a phone. My father doesn't have a phone. I don't have a touch phone. If my mother goes to work, they won't give me a phone. Or at night time. Or even in the morning, I don't have a phone. My name is Tamil Neela. I am a soundstander. In the online class, I don't understand how to use the online class. I don't know how to use the online class. In the online class, I don't know how to use the online class. Now, I ask for a group plan. I ask, but first my phone will be available only at night. Then after going to work, it will be at 10 o'clock and 12 o'clock. If we come at 10 o'clock, we do our work. At 12 o'clock, we go to our parents' home. I don't know how to use the online class. If I ask them, but if I don't have a phone. I don't understand. I am an online class. If I have a phone, I can call them and ask them. But they don't have a phone. So these are all many of the things that we are facing on par with this online education. And online education is conducted by the school. They are not 100% education because India was not the private part number one. Number two, the teachers are not trained regarding how to handle these classes online. They are now using the Zoom meetings and other things where only the company level meetings can be held with those kind of things. It's not a classroom but you can meet them with the meeting proposals. And number three, the parents were not required and the children were not required. But they don't want anything about it. Just like attending a class, writing a class word, going through the question and answer. Some students are even conducting exams online. They are calling it online exams but they are not really online exams. The question workers are shown in the screen. Children are starting writing as usual. While you are writing something on your paper, it is not an online exam at all. These are all misunderstandings regarding online exams on online education in our country. When are people more than about 42% only attending these classes? And 60% and above children are not inside. For example, let me talk about the secondary education. It is very, very important. Only 25.2% of the children are attending the secondary education online. What about the remaining 75 to 24, 25%? These children are outside education. The real problem that we are facing now is when the schools are going to be reopened again, how many of these children will respond to this? Now we are talking big words regarding dropouts. And the Estal Committee called upon dropouts as a very big problem in India. We wanted education for all. Now the government new education policy says that online education is going to become in the future. And it also says it is a dropout, a word that it has a droplet. Now it is using a word, voluntary withdrawal from the school. It is a very dangerous word. And when you are going to reopen the school, then only you would know where is the real condition, where is the real situation. Regarding the 70% of the children who are outside this online school. Take for example, some areas in Assam, some areas in North-East and the remote areas in Diga. Nothing can be done because these areas there is no covers, there is no connection with the people. And in these areas, they are not considered as education areas at all. That is the real problem we are facing. And in India, like a country like India, where you have about 2,66,000 children inside the children care institutions, they are all homeless children. They are all living on the streets. And another about 3,00,000 people actually living on the streets. This kind of online education is a very big problem. And I don't think it can be done. The real government who calls itself a people government should come forward with solutions. Now we, it is time for us to think about the solutions. What actually we can do? See, we know very well this online education is creating. Who are rich there? This online education is creating rural urban care. This online education is creating market and key education there. The market education is the one thing the government, you know, in the center now, is 100% giving its, you know, old concern. It's not concerning about the rural. It's not concerning about the poor children. It's not concerning about the universal education, which has to reach everybody. Now, what are other countries then? Take for example, the real case of Florida, where, you know, there's a lot of black communities living, migrant children living. What they did? See, in March 10th, was the date Trump announced about the lockdown. March 7th, people visited the school about three inches on for the government, of the Florida government. They went to class week class and raised the children regarding internet connection, regarding gadgets. And after knowing that, on 12th of March, they connected every house, whether it's no connection. They told Nina Pena, he's right. And then they went for a campaign, getting the old gadgets or something, extra gadgets which people have, they gathered it in one place. It has happened in America. The very America which the government says it is happening there, it has happened there. What they did? They put all the gadgets together, they went to the house, their children were called to school on 13th of March. They were standing in line on for the COVID-19 rules. They have read, you over people don't have a gadget, they received one. It's actually a kind of charity which people have done. So many things can be done in this country also. The government having full amount of money, recently Amartya san has said that the government is well equipped now, it can educate the entire country. So they can get these tabs or some educational equipment which is going to be mandatory to be given to every child in this country and connect every village and then go ahead with your online education. The M. Baib can come, Vedanta can come, you can do anything with your own rich people and of course we are ready. When you are going to really support the poor to get equal and very good education as the upper middle class is now getting, he is going to be equal. See, something, let me tell you, in 1896 we had the same effort in India. That was plague. In 1920s, even it was extended, so many years, six years, seven years, it went on. You know what the British government did? They supplied a slate and a slate pencil. Slate pensions and slates were in use even in the year 2000 when only they disappeared from our education system. When the tab came it disappeared. Slate was the one thing the British government introduced. Only you can take slate to the school. I think yes. The slate you can write your homework. Slate is a very important equipment regarding education and they used it properly well. When you go to school, show it to your teacher, wash in the tap, then all the virus gone, then you go inside, you can take down whatever you want in the state. Same way, maybe in this country the government has to supply tabs. Maybe this is what it has come to force now. But without doing anything, when you are having such a huge divide that there are, for example, let me tell you in Tamil Nadu, 31% of the total population, 71 million people, it is believed that they are having internet connection. That's what they say. But in Tamil Nadu, very clear, there are about 1 crore people who are having a source like laptop or most of the laptops in Tamil Nadu in that number also, is with the old standard students who have got free of cost from the government. The government of Tamil Nadu for the past 4 or 5 years has bought up this. This is actually the government's plan to give one laptop to the children. This is not an impossible mission. It's a possible mission. Now more than 50% of the people in Tamil Nadu don't have a center. They don't have a, you know, a center. And in urban area, 61% have connection. They're planning 40% don't have or 39% don't have. The rural area, it is about the, you know, 41% which is having the assets. Those who cannot do it, they are now migrating towards the government schools which are locked with it totally and there is no education taking place. And let me tell you 39% of the India is now attending the online education. The remaining number of them, you know, the percentage which is about the 60% is going to have a zero academic year. The government is not going to be open to this on top of the COVID-19 situation when it is to enter the country. According to the 2011 instance, about 2.5 crore children are there in Tamil Nadu less than 80% 1.6 crore as one way or the other some connection with this market. In some rural areas even one street is having one. So these people are using. In the fishermen belt when you take, 20 of children are going along with their parents to the sea for fishing. But when they are coming back in the fisherman belt 4 or 5 families are now sharing and stuff. Like this, the people themselves will find some solution. In some areas, teachers themselves they are spending some money to do to the children. But the government should come forward with the PAKKA budgeting norms to do something for every child that this can be done or otherwise it is better to stop the other side getting it because it is going to bring a lot of problems in the future especially a long gap between an education which is not up to the standards because the education that now online you are doing is not the standard education everybody knows. You can take a lot of examples from what they are doing in Canada Sweden and US compared to the Indian situation the lessons they are teaching and all those things. They are taking videos they are putting the microphone and also the telephone. They are just like that talking to the child they are doing blah blah blah then they are putting it in the groups. Now that is a group that is a group with the video 61% of the schools are doing it. Remaining number of schools only they are going to go direct on it. This 61% of the schools 7 minutes, I had 4 minutes 10 minutes videos in 10 minutes what a teacher can really teach you and you are not there and nobody know introduction and education has 5 very important steps. One first step is the lesson plan second step is actually you have to tell the topic that the outcome should be understood and then the teaching should take place that should be a formal discussion because the teaching has to become learning and finally that should be something that the child has to do the outcome of learning. All these things are missing and you are coming out only with 10 minutes of a video and you are calling it on the internet and for this purpose lot of amounts are in investors and satellites are used and plenty of things are done you are telling and there is channels and everyone is now ready to bring out the way the child is going to see as if they are seeing a cartoon network how can your lesson can be taught like that so you have to standard you have to maintain your standard train your teacher you have to maintain a very good standard bring out your own policy your own policy and online education is very important and for online education teaching methodology is very important all these experts are suitable very good expert committee to find out what they can do with the rural and the urban what they can do to bring down the number of people who are not inside the online education circle what they can really do to help the teachers what they can really do to help the children to involve themselves in study and make it a full circle study otherwise it is better that I think the government can interfere and tell the private schools to wait for some more time because now the government has come out with the SOP how to reopen the schools to go ahead with the something like that so on and so forth when they are happening online education the private schools are not going to stop because we know very well they have found out a very nice opening and building purpose now only the government should come forward to help those people who are in a very pathetic condition that they cannot send their children to school they cannot have the access to the internet they cannot have gadgets because they are very poor so for these things we need solution otherwise this digital divide is going to be a very huge issue it is going to affect our future for a long time