Online classes: 39 % of students do not have access to smartphones in rural Telangana

Hyderabad: A survey conducted by Telangana State United Teachers’ Federation has revealed that 39.6 per cent of school-going children's families do not have smartphones, while 48.9 per cent of families have only one smartphone in their homes.

Of the 39,659 students who were surveyed, 30458 (76.8%) are studying in government schools, while 9201 (23.2%) are studying in private schools.

The survey found that the families were reluctant to spare phones for their children’s online classes. Only 22 per cent of families are ready to give their phones to their children for online classes.

The survey was conducted in 33 districts of Telangana covering 489 mandals and 1868 villages and wards from June 22 to June 27. Around 22,502 parents participated in the survey. The survey was conducted mostly in rural Telangana.

Of the total families having smartphones, only 11 per cent have sufficient data that can be used for online classes.

It was also found that only 23.8 per cent of children have internet in their schools, while 7.9 per cent of children have no information about the facility at their schools.

93.4 per cent of parents opined that they want the schools to resume, while only 6.6 per cent of parents want online classes. It was also found that only 14.5 per cent of private schools are conducting online classes.

Only 4.4 per cent of 5220 parents surveyed said online classes are useful, while 24.7 per cent found partially useful. The rest said it is not useful at all.

Out of 9201 private school-going children, only 3.6 per cent stated that online classes are useful, while 27.7 per cent said they are partially useful, while 68.7 per cent don’t see anything useful in online classes.

The study also revealed that 85.2 per cent of people have TV sets at home.

“Because of this pandemic, we have suffered a huge academic loss. Online classes seemingly are not possible. Most of the families have television sets. Tele-classes are a possibility. Those students who don’t have television sets can go to gram panchayat hall or community hall to attend teleclasses,” said K. Jangiah SA, President, Telangana State United Teachers’ Federation.

In the survey, it was is also found that television sets are working in only 11.6 per cent of gram panchayats halls.