Atleast 27 per cent students do not have access to smartphones or laptops to attend online classes

New Delhi: Atleast 27 per cent students do not have access to smartphones or laptops to attend online classes, while 28 per cent students and parents believe intermittent or lack of electricity is one of the major concerns hindering teaching-learning, according to a survey by the NCERT.

The survey with over 34,000 partcipants, including students, parents, teachers and school principals from Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodyaya Vidyalas and CBSE affiliated schools, has pointed out that lack of knowledge of using devices for effective educational purposes and teachers not being well-versed with online teaching methodologies, caused hindrance in the learning process.

NCERT"Approximately 27 per cent of the students mentioned the non-availability of smartphones and laptops. The maximum number of stakeholders has opted for mobile phones as a medium for teaching-learning during the Covid-19 period," the survey by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) said.

"About 36 per cent of the students used the textbooks and other books available with them. Laptops were the second most favoured option amongst teachers and principals. Television and radio were the least utilized devices for the teaching-learning in the pandemic situation. The absence of enriched interaction between the teacher and the students was one of the reasons as identified by the stakeholders," it added.

"About half of the students stated that they did not have the school textbooks. Although the e-text books are available on NCERT website and DIKSHA, the probable reasons behind this feedback are that students are used to studying from the hardcopy of the textbooks, there is lack of awareness regarding the availability of the e-textbook and paucity of devices with students and teachers," it said.

PhotoThe majority of the stakeholders pointed out that mathematics as a subject was difficult to learn via online medium.

"Since, mathematics contains a number of concepts which require interaction, continuous support, monitoring from the teacher and these aspects were lacking in the online mode of teaching.

"Next to Mathematics, Science was identified as the subject of concern since it contains several concepts and practical experiments which could only be done in the laboratory under the supervision of the teacher. A few stakeholders also found Social Science as a difficult subject to grasp through online classes," the survey said.

Online Classes

"Many students and parents felt the need for Physical Education classes through online mode, as physical fitness is the need of the hour to combat this pandemic. Arts education can help to reduce stress and boredom. Around 10 per cent of the stakeholders mentioned art education as a subject of concern," the survey said.