NEW DELHI: A Unicef report on the impact of Covid-19 on the lives of 600 million children in South Asia said despite measures to use technology for education, a large number of children were likely to miss out on distant learning opportunities as only a quarter of households (24%) was estimated to have access to the internet. Drawing upon available data, Unicef said there was a large rural-urban and gender divide in access to internet services.
“In India, school closures have impacted 247 million children enrolled in elementary and secondary education and 28 million children who were attending pre-school education in anganwadi centres. This is in addition to the more than 6 million girls and boys who were already out of school prior to the Covid-19 crisis,” the report said.
It added that the government had engaged multiple channels for continuity of education, including web portals, mobile apps, TV channels, radio and podcasts, through platforms such as Diksha, Swayam Prabha TV channels, e-Patshala and the National Repository of Open Educational Resources.
“In addition, there are ongoing efforts to provide textbooks to all school going children at their homes, even in the remotest parts of India. NCERT prepared an alternative academic calendar for classes 1-12 with suggested activities to guide learning at home,” the report said. However, Unicef cited access to technology as a critical challenge.
It also said that since many families were facing problems in accessing affordable nutritious food, some of the recent gains made in reducing malnutrition could reverse. A recent study by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Lancet Global Health Journal was cited where it was said that due to reductions in routine health service coverage, disruption in live saving immunisation activities and aRead More – Source
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