The State of Elementary education In Rural India Report, 2023

Why in the News?

The State of Elementary education In Rural India Report, 2023 was released based on a pan-India survey conducted by the Development intelligence Unit (DIU) which highlights the usage of smartphones among students.

Findings of the Report:

1. More children used smartphones for entertainment rather than for education purposes.
   • 49.3% of students have access to smartphones in rural India.
   • Of these students having access to gadgets, 76% of students used it to play video games.
   • Other entertainment use by the students included downloading and watching movies and listening music.
2. Low usage of smartphones for studies
   • 34% use gadgets for downloading study material
   • 18% accessed online learning through tutorials.

3. Drop-out of students:
   • 36% of the survey’s girl students dropped out from schools due to the following students
     1. To help out with the family’s earnings
     2. Child’s lack of interest in studies
     3. Daughters had to take care of household chores and siblings
   • Drop out among boys were also prevalent dur to the reason of lack of interest in studies.
   • Drop out among both boys and girls were greater after completion of Primary Education (75% for boys and 65% for girls).
4. Parents’ participation in their children’s studies:
   • Only 40% of parents had daily conversation about learnings in school with their children
   • 32% of parents had a conversation about studies in school few days in a week
   • 80% of the parents wanted their children to become graduates or attend higher degrees.

• • 84% of the parents attended the parents-teachers meet regularly.
  • Reasons cited for sending their children to school

Recommendations cited by the report:

1. Early childhood care and education has to be emphasized.
2. Education in local languages has to be encouraged
3. There needs to be a greater involvement of women in the development sector programmes.

Other Recommendations:

1. World Health Organization:
   1. The screen time of young children should not exceed two hours per day.
   2. Adolescents should use digital devices under strict parental supervision.
   3. Parents and relatives of children have the onus of monitoring and limiting the use of digital devices.
2. Land in communities need to identified as playground for children to involve them in physical games and sports
   1. Mobile games impact the health of children
   2. Obesity and cognitive impairment in children is a serious concern with the sedentary lifestyle.
3. Parents shall use smartphone features like “Digital wellbeing and parental control” to limit the hours of surfing and filter content in smartphones.
4. Parents should restrict themselves from high screen media use to interact with children more effectively.
5. Awareness programs to educate children about cybercrime, cyber bullying and internet safety rules can be conducted in schools.
6. More internet de-addiction centres need to be established akin to AIIMS Behavioural Addiction clinic that interacts with school and college students to create awareness.

Link: More students using smartphones for entertainment than study: survey - The Hindu