Deficiency in preparedness and infrastructure, meager policies have made online education detrimental for poor students, said UNESCO global education monitoring report 2020
The strategies adopted by the government worldwide in order to impart education through online medium,in the middle of COVID-19 pandemic, to the children in their respective countries have not shown great results. Lack of Infrastructure is to be blamed too.
“The challenge was too large for any education system to respond effectively. School closures placed unprecedented challenges on governments, teachers, students, and parents aiming to ensure learning continuity,” according to the report. According to this report, use of technology in education is dependent on income of the country. “74 percent of lower-middle-income countries used television programmes in primary education, compared with 36 percent of low-income countries,” the report added.
Though many lower and middle-income countries, including India could use television to broadcast programmes; the number is significantly low in comparison to the richer countries where the adoption of online methods has been 93 per cent for primary education and secondary education.
Not only this, even the teachers in the Rich countries as well as the poor countries revealed unpreparedness for such a global challenge and no school administration guided them through this.
The report also revealed that whenever such global pandemic occurs, the students with disabilities are often left out.
“Overall, about 40% of low and lower-middle-income countries have not supported learners at risk of exclusion during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as those living in remote areas, the poor, linguistic minorities and learners with disabilities,” : GEM report.
The report has shown concerns that altogether this might leave them with no potions but to discontinue their studies.
“By increasing social isolation, the pandemic also increased the risk of marginalized students disengaging further from education and leaving school early,” the report added.