India’s schoolchildren were devastated by lockdowns and online classes
In the absence of physical classrooms and without the devices or internet necessary to access online school, nearly 40% of students in underprivileged households have not been studying at all.
These findings are part of the School Children’s Online and Offline Learning report, or School for short, coordinated by researchers Nirali Bakhla, Jean Drèze, Vipul Paikra, and Reetika Khera, based on a 15-state survey of nearly 1,400 households in August. About 60% of the households reside in rural India, a share slightly less than for the population as a whole, and 60% are representative of Dalit and Adivasi communities. To gauge the impact on less privileged families, volunteers focused on households where children were likely to be enrolled in classes 1-8 in public schools, rather than private ones.
When the pandemic hit, India had about 265 million children enrolled in school, including primary and higher levels, with most of them relying on public systems.
