Bhubaneswar: A recent survey on differently-abled students of the state has revealed that several of them now face the threat of dropping out as they have limited access to digital/online classes.
The survey was conducted by a community-based organisation from the state—Swabhiman – and Disability Legislation Unit of Eastern India.
According to the researchers, the differently-abled students are now vulnerable to denial of access to education due to their limited access to digital interventions and availability of such methods to access online information.
“An underlying reality was that children from government schools belong to poor families, and most of them were not users or owners of smartphones which are being used for online education,’ said Sruti Mohapatra, CEO, Swabhiman. The survey took views from different categories of differently-abled students from the state and took their feedback on their study levels during the global pandemic and closure of educational institutions.
The study said that 56.5 per cent of the differently-abled students are struggling yet attending classes, but irregularly.
“Around 77 per cent of students said they would not be able to cope and would fall behind in learning due to their inability to access distance learning methods while 71 per cent said they are finding it difficult to cope with the Covid-19 social and educational scenario,” the study said.
“The parents of as many as 90 per cent of such kids said teachers are not giving them attention while 86 per cent said they don’t know how to use the technology. As many as 76 per cent of mothers said they don’t know how to help their wards as they themselves do not understand technology. A large proportion of teachers (81 per cent) said they do not have accessible educational material, suitable for online learning, with them,” the study said.
The study claimed that around 71 per cent said even though smartphones are available at home, the father is the only person who has a smartphone and was out of home most of the time for livelihood purposes, while 61 per cent of them said they would not be able to afford to buy a new smartphone as it was expensive.
The researchers have advocated for a different approach for the students living with different forms of disabilities as per their needs to help them in their access to studies during the pandemic. Mohapatra said all children with disabilities cannot be clubbed as one group as they are persons with different disabilities and therefore different needs.