Many students studying in urban institutions and staying in hostels or paying-guest accommodations, have returned to their native villages since the onset of the lockdown. In villages, they face challenges to access the online courses conducted by their institutions mainly due to poor data connectivity, lack of access to laptops and smartphones, and power issues. There are instances of students trekking to random spots away from their villages in search of the elusive mobile wireless signal. An instance of a boy having climbed a tree to catch a good enough mobile signal, in Karnataka, has been reported in the media. Students, especially girls, face significant difficulty in managing access to online classes. But the educational institutions in urban and even semi-urban locations are compelled to go ahead with online classes due to academic mandates. This has led to many disadvantaged students having to miss out on online classes, giving rise to uneven opportunities amongst students.
A study of a Government First Grade College (GFGC), reveals many difficulties currently prevailing in online education. The College is located at the taluk headquarters located 20 kms from district headquarters and 90 kms from State headquarters, Bengaluru. Therefore, it is neither a remote rural place nor an urban center. The college has 1161 students, with 823 girls and 338 boys2.
About 20% of the 300 students who responded to survey do not have own phone and instead borrow from family members. This is in addition to the 424 students who could not be contacted at all. Among the students who have responded, while 93% of the boys in UG have their own phones, only 67% of the girl students have their own phones, with the rest depending on family members. Most PG students (96%), who responded to survey, have their own phones. Generally, laptops or desktops are the preferred mode of accessing OTC. But, it was found that only 2% of the UG respondents (223) and 17% of PG respondents (77) have laptop or desktop. Further, 96% of SC and 100% of ST student respondents do not have laptop or desktop. The data about ownership of laptops also showed more percentage of boys had laptops than girls. Among the students who have responded, all PG students have mobile wireless data connection, while 89% UG students had wireless connection. None of the students have fixed broadband connections like Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Fiber To The Home (FTTH) etc.
The survey reveals that the main challenge the rural students face can be attributed to poor data connectivity and lack of Laptops/Desktops to access the online classes. Last year, the Government of Karnataka has introduced a scheme to provide laptops to students in the GFGCs to first year degree students. The students can then use the laptop to access the OTC if there is proper internet access. The Government of India launched the Bharatnet scheme to connect all the 2.5 Lakh GPs (Gram Panchayat) and provide WiFi and fiber based internet connectivity for rural households and institutions. The project has been delayed and only 28,000 GPs are in a position to offer services to customers. WiFi connectivity is available in about 23,000 GPs so far. Provision of WiFi in villages will be most beneficial to the students as they can connect their laptops and access the OTC. The mobile wireless operators JIO, Airtel and IDEA have expressed interest and approached BBNL (Bharath Broadband Network Limited) to use the fiber connectivity from Taluka to GP. This backhaul bandwidth will help the service providers to provide high speed mobile wireless at the villages if implemented properly. The direct FTTH connection along with the high speed mobile wireless connection will ensure that the rural citizens have data connectivity options. It will also mean that BBNL would meet its vision of digital empowerment of rural citizens. However, the challenges of technology rollout, management and maintenance in a timely manner will also need to be addressed so that consistency of service is ensured. The various stakeholders and Government agencies such as BBNL, BSNL and service providers need to work in tandem utilizing Universal Service Obligation fund (USOF), resolve contentions and disputes in a timely manner in order to achieve the set goals.
We enquired with three GPs in the Tiptur taluk of Karnataka and found that they all have Bharatnet Fiber connectivity since the past 2 to 5 years. They are all configured for the plan – “30gb CUL Bharat Fiber” by BSNL providing 16mbps speed. But the connection is used only by the GP for its various online data entry purposes. The connection is not yet extended to rural households and Institutions. WiFi hotspot is also not made available, though during lockdown WiFi was configured temporarily for the benefit of a few local village students in one of the GPs. The outbreak of corona virus and the resultant difficulties accentuates the desperate need for good data connectivity in rural areas. Timely implementation of Bharatnet could have helped people in rural areas significantly to face the challenges during lockdown.
Bharatnet can address the current inequity created not only among rural and urban but also between boys and girls as well as people belonging to different social categories. Even after the Covid 19 situation returns to normal, there will be opportunities for some part of the educational and training content that can be delivered online to various segments, apart from creating opportunities for ecommerce, agriculture extension, healthcare, skill development and employment. Resorting to online mode of imparting education may become a formal disaster management fallback measure in future. All this calls for the urgent need to provision reliable broadband data connectivity in rural areas. Corona outbreak should serve as a harsh reminder that it needs to be taken up on a war footing without any more delay.
1 Gopal Naik is Professor and Narasinga Rao Project Consultant at IIM Bangalore.
2 This disproportionate gender ratio can be attributed to the free education and various benefit schemes specially for girls in Government colleges, girls doing better in schools in rural areas and parents’ preference to send girls to local liberal arts colleges.
First Published: Sep 07, 2020, 11:05
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