Lockdown Hits Poor Students Hard, 86% Unable to Explore Online Learning: Survey

As the country completes a fortnight of lockdown imposed to contain COVID 19 pandemic, the closure of educational institutions has significantly affected students, especially those belonging to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) of the society, according to a survey. 

The majority of EWS students are also unable to explore online learning resources due to lack of e-learning know-how and unavailability of required infrastructure including laptops, tablets, smartphone and internet.

In India, more than 15 lakh institutions are closed and about 25 crore of school students are not able to go to their schools.  

Out of these 25 crore students, about 80 per cent fall in EWS category, according to survey.

Buddy4Study.com, a technology platform supporting students with scholarship related assistance and mentoring solutions, conducted a survey of school students across the country to understand the impact of ongoing lockdown on their studies and the challenges they are facing towards exploring alternate ways of learning. 

The survey was conducted in both online and offline. 

While the survey response was collected from 2000 students online, as many as 300 students responded offline through telephone calls.

Manjeet Singh, CEO, Buddy4Study.com, said, "As we advocate the shift in learning methods in the changing scenario, the challenges for Economically Disadvantaged Section of EWS students in India have only increased as they are neither equipped nor hand-held in pursuing online learning programmes."

Our survey aimed to understand the ground level scenario and the results have strengthened our resolve for helping students towards alternative methods of learning, he said, adding, majority of the students need support towards online learning.  

Key findings

- More than 75% students reported severe impact on their education due to COVID 19 crisis. 11 % reported moderate impact and 7 % reported low impact. Rest 7% of students said it had not impacted their studies

- More than 86% student preferred online study options amid the continuing lockdown in the country  

- More than 75% of students said they found it difficult to pursue an online course as they have never done it before

- About 79% students said they were uncomfortable with online learning solutions

- About 90% students mentioned that they needed handholding to make a shift towards online learning and another 30% said they would also require the trainer to pursue online learning 

- More than 80% students specified that they would need weekly/monthly doubt clearing sessions to become comfortable with online learning.

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