‘Lost Generation’ Fears as COVID Locks Out India’s Poor Students
UNICEF says only one in four Indian children has access to digital devices and internet, with many families selling belongings or taking loans to buy gadgets.
CS Satheesha spells out “A-P-P-L-E” into his phone as he teaches remotely from the only place he can get a signal – a treehouse in his back garden in southern India.
In the Kodagu district of Karnataka state, eight-year-old Shreeshma listens to Satheesha’s WhatsApp voice notes on her mother’s phone on her porch and repeats sentences such as: “This is a cat.”
In a country where schools have been shut for more than a year, one of the longest shutdowns in the world, she and her fellow pupils are among the lucky ones.
According to a report earlier this year by UNICEF, only one in four children in India has access to digital devices and the internet.
Photo courtesy of Sandeep Singh Thukral.
Source: Aljazeera (link opens in a new window)
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- Coronavirus, Education
