38% Indian School Kids Have Access To Internet, But E-Learning Is A Challenge For Poor

Today, amidst COVID-19 lockdown, the internet has truly become our saviour. It is helping us work, it is keeping us entertained, and at the same time, it is also helping kids stuck at home to study.

And now, a new report has revealed that more and more students in India have access to the internet -- 38 percent to be exact.

Reuters

This is according to a report by insights and consulting company Kantar. This 38 percent includes school-going kids below the age of 15. According to the report, the factors for this spike in usage is due to education, social media, gaming, entertainment among others.

Rise of the internet in rural areas

The report ¡®ICUBETM 2019 also reveals that over 264 million people in the rural areas are using the internet -- witnessing a 45 percent growth whereas, in urban areas, this growth is just 11 percent while crossing 574 million users in 2019.

Puneet Avasthi, Senior Director, Insights Division, Kantar, said in the report, "The new decade is expected to witness the next wave of Digital India aided by the recent COVID-19 pandemic that has catalysed the speed at which the already connected consumer is getting further connected with devices, payments, e-medicine, etc."

Reuters

The report mentions that mobile is the platform of choice, with nearly 100 percent active users browsing the internet on their smartphones. The report also sheds light on this year¡¯s growth estimates at 11 percent with 639 million active monthly active users. It also estimates that internet usage in rural India would cross 304 million in 2020.

Access to local-language content contributing to the boom

It might be astonishing to see rural India getting on the internet bandwagon, but the report highlights that access to local language content is the main driving force behind this, stating, "Local language and video are the underlying factors for the internet boom in rural. The rural population has finally crossed the point of a chasm by embracing the Internet in a big way, resulting in a 2.5X growth in penetration in the last 4 years."

As per the report, kids and housewives will be the new batch of internet adopters in the coming year or two. It also revealed that over 84 percent of people access the internet for entertainment.

According to Biswapriya Bhattacharjee, Vice President, Insights Division, Kantar, "The lockdown and social distancing have pushed users to experiment with various digital solutions, some of them by desire while others due to compulsion. The year 2020 is likely to see a tectonic shift in both Internet adoption and frequency of usage."

Reuters

Future of education

COVID-19 has truly made us realise the importance of the internet and how it is connected to all walks of our lives. Ever since schools have been shut (in March), kids have surely shifted to e-learning platforms. In this report, hearing 38 percent of kids having access to the internet surely sounds great, as many kids won¡¯t be missing out on learning online amidst COVID-19 lockdown.

However, there is still a large chunk that is not connected to the internet, that cannot even afford a smartphone. Even if a parent has access to a smartphone, subscribing to an internet plan would only add to their expenses -- many of them can¡¯t even afford it.

Education for such kids still remains a concern. For them, education has gone even further out of reach, where they¡¯d have to wait for regular schools to reopen to be able to commence their academic year.