Making Education Accessible

There is literally no sector that has not been affected by the ongoing pandemic. All the countries are making efforts to revive the battered economy and entrepreneurs are trying to breathe life into their business amid the current health crisis. Efforts are also being made to revive education by introducing several ways of learning, especially online classes as traditional classroom learning is not conducive during the pandemic. With most parents apprehensive about sending their children back to schools in the absence of a Covid-19 vaccine, virtual learning is here to stay. While developed countries appear to have adapted well to this new mode, developing countries are still struggling due to poverty and lack of facilities like gadgets, smartphones, internet and electricity. The government of India launched the “Digital India” campaign in 2015 in an attempt to make government services available to the people by making internet available to every nook and corner of the country. This ambitious programme has no doubt brought about significant improvement in terms of making internet facilities available to the public but it still has a long way to go, failing to penetrate into remote regions. The current health crisis has exposed the digital divide that exists in the country, as people in many rural areas and hill stations still cannot access internet, making the efforts to help students learn during lockdown through online classes futile. And almost all the north-eastern states, including Nagaland fall in technology-deprived region.

Amid digital disparity and other limitations, Nagaland has been making concerted effort to ensure that students in the state learn after all educational institutions were closed even before the nationwide lockdown was announced in March. Many schools have been conducting online classes to its students for months now. The department of School Education has been giving video lessons on Doordashan, JioTV and social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube. However, poor internet connectivity or lack of it in many areas as well as inability to purchase gadgets to access virtual lessons had forced the department to look for other ways to ensure that those in remote areas are not left out in learning. The department has announced that it will distribute free pen drives containing study materials to all government schools for those who can’t access video lessons via television and digital platforms. Some may still argue that this move too won’t help much citing issues like lack of computers to access the study materials. The argument is valid and the issue real. However, education can’t wait, and so the state government has been making all efforts to bring all the students onboard the learning plane using all the resources available, which is commendable. Government has done and is doing what it could to help students under the present circumstance. Now, people should try to assist the government in ensuring that students in rural areas are not left out of alternative learning. The educated youths, including those who returned home from various cities due to the pandemic, can be a blessing to the society if they access study materials provided by the government and teach the young minds in small batches in their neighbourhood by maintaining physical distancing. Such small deeds will make a big difference during this crisis.