Parents of underprivileged kids want schools to resume at the earliest: Survey

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As many as 97% of the parents of underprivileged children from the rural areas, want schools to resume at the earliest, The Economic Times reported Tuesday. Quoting a survey, the report said that only 4% of the kids from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes took online classes regularly as against 15% in other rural areas.

The ET report was based on the survey of about 1,400 school children and prepared by economists Jean Dreze and Reetika Khera, researcher Vipul Paikra and 100 other volunteers.

Overall, only 8% of children were regularly studying via virtual classes in rural areas of the country, while 37% of children were not studying at all, the report added.

In states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan, teachers have been asked to visit homes of students for advice and give offline work to children as homework. But despite these efforts, the results are far from satisfactory, according to the report. On the other hand, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh have done almost nothing to ensure that those who did not have access to online classes to study.

Although some states have resumed school for secondary students as the Covid-19 second wave subsided, but there is no definite clarity on when younger classes could resume. The report has warned that children will find themselves removed from the curriculum thrice, when the schools reopen. Two-thirds of parents from urban areas complained that children’s writing abilities have come down during the lockdown