Coronavirus and Education: The life of Underprivileged Students during the Pandemic
Impact of Coronavirus
The coronavirus has affected life worldwide and has had seemingly negative impacts on all industries and social groups. However, the one industry that has been substantially affected by this pandemic is the education industry specifically the children belonging to the underprivileged section of the society. In this age of digital education, it is seemingly difficult for these children to get access to a quality education because of the lack of resources like a good network and other technical equipment.
As a result of all these factors, a lot of children have had to leave their education midway; a lot of others are struggling extremely hard to gain it while some others have had to choose between their education and their family’s basic needs. A lot of families have been struggling to make their ends meet because of which they have withdrawn the funds from their children’s education and directed it towards the path of fulfilling their basic needs. The dropout rates have also thus increased.
However, the sad reality in this context is that even before the pandemic the education dropout rates weren’t as great as one would desire and the education sector was fighting battles then too.
Data showing the drop-outs
As per the data of the United Nations, although there has been a stress on universal enrolment for primary education almost worldwide, more than 250 million people had dropped out of school and nearly 800 million adults were illiterate even during the pre-pandemic period. Now, if we look at this situation from the financial point of view then as per the UN sustainable development goals-4, it was estimated that the amount to be spent on education would be $148 billion annually. However, the pandemic might decrease by this amount by 1/3rd.
PRE PANDEMIC EXPENDITURE-
$148 MILLION.
DURING PANDEMIC EXPENDITURE- $ 49.33 MILLION.
The educational sector in India has also been in specific greatly disturbed due to the outbreak of the Covid -19 pandemic. India has been since time immemorial trying to develop its’ educational sector and has made considerable strides in it. The developments made by India have also been quite successful in this area and India has shone like a bright star.
The literacy rates of some Indian states have been presented below and illustrated with the help of a graph:
The red portion of the graph represents the illiterate population of that state and the red portion represents the literate population. As is evidenced by the chart, Andhra Pradesh was the state with the lowest literacy rate in India.
A Rise in Social Evils
This pandemic has worsened the children’s lives in education. Besides, the lack of funds another problem that the children have had to face is that they have been totally disconnected from their social lives, and being isolated from their contemporaries has thwarted their growth and development. There might again be the rise of social evils like child marriage etc owing to the increased burden on families during this pandemic.
Conclusion
However, the Indian government has already started its work of combating the negatives that the pandemic has had on education. It is working towards coming up with special schemes, programs and initiatives for these underprivileged children. We as humans should also work for the benefit of our fellow inhabitants of the Earth and help in providing education to these underprivileged children by joining initiatives like the Shashi Dream Foundation. It is time for us to do our part in combating the darkness that surrounds all today.
-By Iknoor Kohli (SDF Batch 11, Gargi College, New Delhi, India)
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