scholarly journals COVID-19 IN INDIA: EDUCATION DISRUPTED AND LESSONS LEARNED

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 1269-1274
Author(s):  
Suryakant Ratan Chaugule ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Digital Divide ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Internet Access ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Mobile Internet ◽  
Sample Survey ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Urban Households ◽  
The Government

In India, 320 million students have been affected by COVID-19 school closures, and though the government quickly recommended shifting to online teaching, this ignores Indias immense digital divide-with embedded gender and class divides. The 2017-18 National Sample Survey reported only 23.8 percent of Indian households had internet access. In rural households (66 percent of the population), only 14.9 percent had access, and in urban households only 42 percent had access. And males are the primary users: 16 percent of women had access to mobile internet, compared to 36 percent of men. Young peoples access is even less: A recent news report stated only 12.5 percent of students had access to smartphones. Furthermore, most teachers are ill-equipped for online teaching.

scholarly journals The shortcomings of emergency remote teaching in rural settings of Zimbabwe during COVID-19 school closures: Lessons from China’s experience

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael Nhongo ◽  
Baba P. Tshotsho
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
Teaching Approaches ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Rural Settings ◽  
Ict Infrastructure ◽  
The Government ◽  
Qualitative Phenomenological

Background: In the wake of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, schools were forced to close indefinitely with no clue as to when they would reopen. Upon school closures, remote teaching was adopted, with online teaching becoming the most preferred mode of instruction, yet the Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure was not adequate enough across the country.Aim: This article scrutinises the remote teaching approaches that were put in place in Zimbabwe in response to the closure of schools during the COVID-19 lockdown. The article investigates how the adopted approaches were suitable for conditions in rural settings.Setting: The study looks at the challenges faced in the implementation of remote teaching during COVID-19 school closures in rural areas of Matabeleland provinces in Zimbabwe.Methods: The study adopted a qualitative phenomenological approach to analyse the teaching approaches that were put in place by the government and other stakeholders. Twenty teachers from 20 rural schools drawn equitably from two provinces, Matabeleland South and Matabeleland North, were interviewed on the shortcomings of these remote teaching approaches.Results: The results revealed that the remote teaching approaches that were put in place excluded learners in rural settings. This is because of the challenges in infrastructure, economic condition and restrictions on remote teaching approaches imposed by the government.Conclusion: As Zimbabwe is facing economic hardships and infrastructure development challenges, it was supposed to adopt emergency remote teaching instead of long-term approaches. A variety of approaches that suit specific physical environments should have been adopted instead of sticking to only one throughout the country.

State, Market and Social Inequalities: A Study of Primary Education in the Indian Punjab

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-216
Author(s):  
Angrej Singh Gill
Keyword(s):  
Primary Education ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
National Sample ◽  
The State ◽  
School Education ◽  
Sample Survey ◽  
Government Schools ◽  
Education Market ◽  
The Government ◽  
And Gender

The article, using the National Sample Survey (henceforth NSS) data, establishes that the non-state providers, particularly the private-unaided sub-sector, have predominantly captured the primary school education market in Punjab. The predominance of these schools in the state has made the primary education a tradable commodity, catering to the demands based on the ability of the households to pay. In such a situation, the type of school (government or private) the households in the state are able to choose for their wards, particularly at rural level, is largely contingent on their caste and gender, which clearly shows that a new form of social inequality has emerged in Punjab (given not only that the learning environment in the government schools is perceived to be of formidable concern, but these schools are also non-English medium). The article suggests that without a properly functional state-financed school education system, the market forces will continue to strengthen the prevailing social inequalities.

Constituencies for reform in Ghana

2001 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Bratton ◽  
Peter Lewis ◽  
E Gyimah-Boadi
Keyword(s):  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Market Reform ◽  
Sample Survey ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
National Sample Survey ◽  
Support For Democracy ◽  
The Government

The attitudes of ordinary people in Africa towards the liberalisation of politics and economies are not well known. Are there popular constituencies for reform? Which specific reform measures do different social groups accept or reject? And does popular support for structural adjustment, if any, go together with support for democracy? In an effort to find answers, this article reports results of a national sample survey in Ghana conducted in July 1999 as part of the Afrobarometer. The survey finds that the constituency for democracy is broader than the constituency for market reform, which is concentrated among educated male elites. In addition, while most Ghanaians are patient with democracy and want to retain this political regime, most Ghanaians are fatigued with adjustment and want the government to ‘change its policies now’. Given this distribution of popular preferences, one can surmise that democracy will be easier to consolidate than a market-based economy.

scholarly journals A STUDY ON IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON TEACHING

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 29-32
Keyword(s):  
Online Teaching ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Online Classes ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Government Institutions ◽  
The World ◽  
The Government ◽  
Be The Change

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” The petrifying and severe impact of COVID-19 has shaken the world to its core. Later, most of the Governments around the world have temporarily closed educational institutions in an attempt to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. In India, 320 million students have been affected by COVID-19 school closures, and though the government quickly recommended shifting to “online teaching.” Many of the government institutions are lacking of facilities to conduct online classes. Many teachers are to be updating them to challenge this situation otherwise leads to job threat. This paper with an objective to study out whether the faculties are ready to face challenges due to online teaching and to identify who among male and female are feeling more threat for their jobs due to online teaching.

scholarly journals Impact of different sources of credit in creating extreme farmer distress in India

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1676-1691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhavna Pandey ◽  
Prabir Bandyopadhyay ◽  
Alain Guiette
Keyword(s):  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Sample Survey ◽  
Significant Information ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Government

Purpose According to the published report by the National Sample Survey 2014 the data says that the incidence of indebtedness among households in the rural areas of Maharashtra, India, is almost twice that of other rural places in India. Around 64 percent of rural households are indebted in Maharashtra as against 31 percent other households in India. The purpose of this paper is to examine which source of credit is creating more distress among the farmers. Further the researchers also wanted to find out the reasons why the farmers choose private moneylender over the formal financial institutions. Design/methodology/approach To achieve the objective, the authors used the mixed method methodology. The qualitative study was done using the ethnography approach .In depth interviews were conducted and coded accordingly to find out the themes. The interviews conducted were semi structured and had open ended questions in it, followed by a structured questionnaire. Different statistical tests were also applied on the responses obtained from the questionnaire to check the reliability and validity of the interviews. This methodology gave a robustness to the findings of the study. Findings The results show that sources of loan play a major role in causing farmer distress in Maharashtra. The findings also show major reasons like grapevine bureaucracy, lengthy documentation, etc. as the major reasons for choosing private lenders over the formal financial institutions. The most interesting finding of the study was a phenomena observed during the field study. The borrowers first borrow from financial institutions for their credit needs, when they fail to repay the debt borrowed they again borrow money from the private money lenders and with this borrowed money they try repaying a part of the old existing loan in order to make themselves eligible for the next loan cycle. Research limitations/implications The limitation of the study is that due to time constraint only two districts with high number of farmer suicide could be visited. Given more time and fund a comparative study can be done among different states of India. Practical implications This study will help the policy makers in identifying the real cause of farmer distress. The motive behind the policies made by the government is very noble but the implementation of these policies is inadequate and without a strong research base. The paper will be able to highlight how much the state intervention is required at multiple levels in order to ensure that the benefits reaches to those who deserve it. Social implications It is imperative that we have yet not realized the gravity of the situation where people belonging from a community which is so essential to the economy are killing themselves because of lack of money. This is not just about the fact that the people who give us food are unable to access food themselves. Originality/value The paper contains significant information with regard to indebtedness. It focuses on the issue troubling the authorities the most. It provides the ground realities of the incidence of indebtedness in Maharashtra, one of the most distressed states of India. Lot of studies have been done in the past but very few studies have used mixed methodology to study this incidence of debt among the farmers of Maharashtra. This study also unveils a new phenomena of borrowing happening among the farmers of Maharashtra.

scholarly journals Right to Education Act: Universalisation or Entrenched Exclusion?

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhay Kumar ◽  
Sudheer Kumar Shukla ◽  
Mary Panmei ◽  
Vir Narayan
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Education ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Sample Survey ◽  
Right To Education ◽  
Capita Expenditure ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Education Act ◽  
The Government

Right to Education (RTE) Act is intended to provide free and compulsory elementary education to all children aged 6–14 years. This article examines key constituents of elementary education in view of the RTE Act such as current attendance rate, types of institutions, medium of instruction, neighbourhood schools, Monthly per capita expenditure on elementary education (MPCEE)and incentives during pre- and post-RTE period using National Sample Survey Organisation’s 64th (2007–2008) and 71st (2014) round of unit level data. The result shows that far from the universalisation, exclusion is getting entrenched across gender, sector, and socio-religious and economic groups. Female children, children from deprived socio-religious groups, rural areas and from the bottom MPCE quintile have not only fared lower in most of the studied parameters during the pre-RTE period, but the gap from their counterpart has widened immensely during the post-RTE period. Free education has declined and monthly per capita expenditure on elementary education has increased sharply. Children are moving out of the government to private schools. The findings raise serious questions on the intention of the government to fulfil its mandate under RTE.

Evidence from Google Trends of a Widening Second-level Digital Divide in Brazil. Even Worse with the Covid-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 121-154
Author(s):  
Renato P. dos Santos ◽  
M Şahin Bülbül ◽  
Isadora L Lemes
Keyword(s):  
Digital Divide ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Internet Access ◽  
Analysis Data ◽  
Mobile Internet ◽  
Google Trends ◽  
Statistical Research ◽  
Broadband Internet ◽  
Choropleth Maps ◽  
The Impact

Background: While Brazilian governmental initiatives focused on home broadband Internet access, availability of computers for students in schools has been drastically reduced since 2010. Furthermore, schools usually prohibits mobile Internet access in its premises, contrarily to the migration of students’ access to smartphones.  Objectives: This study investigates the impact of the increasing home and mobile Internet access on the existing educational inequalities. Design: This study made use of quantitative, locally statistical research to investigate the reproduction or closing of existing educational digital divide across already contrasting Brazilian regions. Setting and Participants: Child or adolescent from 9 to 17 years of age and their guardians, interviewed by CETIC.br. Data collection and analysis: Data was obtained from the CETIC.br data portal and the Google Trends webpage. Data were analysed by means of local geostatistical measures of spatial autocorrelation and inequality, as well as bivariate choropleth maps. Results: Our results suggest that the Brazilian school system is failing to cultivate in their students the more productive use of Internet access and therefore contributing to the widening of the existing second-level digital divide between regions and social classes. Conclusions: This digital divide was critically exacerbated by the arrival of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the suspension of presential classes.Brazilian policymakers should concentrate efforts and resources in addressing this large-scale second-level digital divide, possibly by equipping educators and students with the knowledge and skills towards the educational, productive and responsible use of the Internet, as well as allowing mobile Internet access in school premises.

An Analysis of Factors Affecting Private Expenditure on Education in India

2021 ◽  
pp. 097674792110123
Author(s):  
Ananda Mukherjee ◽  
Sarbajit Sengupta
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Female Child ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Household Size ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Sample Survey ◽  
Consumer Expenditure ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Private Expenditure ◽  
The Government

Private expenditure on education is a determining factor for ensuring an individual’s educational progress. Though the government provides a vast infrastructure at minimal cost, the individuals have to incur cost from their pockets for various purposes. In this study, we have analysed the various influences on private expenditure on education based on National Sample Survey 71st round conducted in 2014. We have found that household consumer expenditure, respondent’s age, medium of instruction dummy, private coaching dummy and household computer dummy affect private expenditure on education positively, and household size, rural dummy, female dummy, social group dummies, minority religion dummy and type of school dummy affect private expenditure on education negatively. The important policy implications are the tendency to spend less for the female child needs to be amended and the male and female child needs to be given same preference when it comes to expenditure on education. Family planning should be implemented effectively to keep the household size reasonably small for better educational access of an individual. The weaker social groups such as STs, SCs and OBCs and the minorities should be supported well by scholarships and stipends for furthering their education. The number of government institutions should increase to provide low-cost education to society. English medium schools should be made to offer more seats for the financially weak. Private coaching should be made as redundant as possible by improving teaching in the schools. For having computer in households, the financially weak should get some subsidy or may be community computer centres can cater to their needs at reduced cost or free of cost. JEL: I25, I22

scholarly journals Challenges in the Digitization of Apprenticeships during the Coronavirus Pandemic: Who Needs Special Assistance?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 11701
Author(s):  
Melanie Hochmuth ◽  
Alina Nadine Geßler ◽  
Silke Seyffer ◽  
Andreas Frey
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
School Performance ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
Vocational Training ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Internet Access ◽  
Working Life ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Likert Scales ◽  
The Individual

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all areas of life, including everyday working life. Apprentices are often affected two-fold by the lockdown—school closures make it difficult to learn the theoretical content, while restrictions in the company affect practical work. This article reports the findings of an online mixed-method survey among 167 apprentices on the impacts of the pandemic on dual vocational training in Germany. In the survey, Likert scales were presented visually in a way that was particularly suitable for adolescents. The results show that the schools have had gaps in terms of equipment and online instruction. There was little or no online teaching, and the apprentices had hardly any contact with teachers and were left to work on the material on their own. The majority of apprentices expected their school performance to deteriorate as a consequence of the pandemic. The individual comments in response to open-ended questions also suggest that the digital offerings of vocational schools were inadequate during the first lockdown. At the same time, there were major differences in individual hardware equipment, such as computers, and in the apprentices’ Internet access. The gender differences are particularly interesting, as women tended to be at a disadvantage.

The cyber classroom: Academic governance and sustainability in the 2020 pandemic context

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1, Special Issue) ◽  
pp. 131-142
Author(s):  
Francisco José Leandro ◽  
Eusebio Chiahsin Leou
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Current Model ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Anticipatory Socialization ◽  
Spring Semester ◽  
Academic Governance ◽  
Governance Challenges ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

From February to December 2020, the Government of Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) implemented strict health measures to control the pandemic caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19). Among several other developments, universities in the territory turned to online teaching, which lasted for the entire 2020 spring semester. This paper aims to identify the empirical lessons learned from that period, from both pedagogic and governance points of view, keeping in mind the impact of technological, human-related, and governance challenges. The sustainability of online teaching for a limited period of time was directly related to the effectiveness (and speed) of external coordination (involving the relevant governmental departments) and internal commitment within the university. Despite the relative academic success and the technological transformation, one of the key lessons learned is that online teaching cannot effectively contribute to the processes of secondary and anticipatory socialization in the same way as in-person learning. Therefore, online teaching is not sustainable as a stand-alone tool in higher education. It fails to deliver secondary and anticipatory socialization particularly with regard to the sense of connection and togetherness. Clearly, the current model of academic governance has not been designed to face this type of challenge

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