Nearly 20% Of Rural School Children Had No Textbooks Due To COVID: Survey

A nationwide survey has revealed that about 20 per cent of rural children have no textbooks at home.

According to the Annual State of Education Report (ASER) survey, conducted in the month of September, about one in three rural children had done no learning activity at all, reported The Hindu.

It revealed that about two in three had no learning material or activity given by their school that week, and only one in ten had access to live digital classes.

In Andhra Pradesh, less than 35 per cent of children had textbooks, and only 60 per cent had textbooks in Rajasthan. While on a positive side, more than 98 per cent had textbooks in West Bengal, Nagaland and Assam.

ASER is a nationwide survey of rural education in terms of reading and arithmetic skills that has been conducted by the NGO Pratham for the last 15 years. This year, however, the organisation carried out its first-ever phone-based survey amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, reaching 52,227 rural households with school-age children in 30 states and Union Territories.

It found that 5.3 per cent of rural children aged 6-10 years had not yet enrolled in school this year, in comparison to just 1.8 per cent in 2018.

Hindustan Times reported that around 50 per cent of the teachers surveyed in the rural areas did not receive any form of training and 68.8 per cent received quick and hurried training based on brief instructions.

Highlighting a major gap, it stated that out of this 68.8 per cent who received training, 32.2 per cent had comparatively elaborate online or physical sessions; 7.5 per cent completed an online course and 4.4 per cent had undergone some form of introduction into teaching.

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