For want of facilities at home, Delhi's poor children fail to benefit from online classes
May 01, 2020
New Delhi [India], May 1 : As schools move to online classroom teaching due to COVID-19 pandemic, poor students are facing difficulty in having access to their classes as they do not have laptops and internet facility at home.
Children living in Samaypur Badli slum area, who study in government schools, do not have laptops, computers, or Android phones to get access to online classes.
"Online education has started in our school but I have neither a laptop nor a computer or even an Android phone. My parents don't have enough money to get me all this," said Reshu, Class VI student at SKV School, Badli.
"So, I am not able to study. Some old books are kept in the house. I study myself by sitting in the house with those books," added Reshu.
Students from other schools also echoed similar problems.
Rajit Ram Prajapati, who lives in the slum area of Badli, has two children, studying in Class VI and IV, said: "We are helpless as our financial condition is not good."
"As online studies have started in schools, we are unable to provide education to our kids. We do not have the required facility. We want to teach our children but we are helpless," said Prajapati.
Prajapati has requested the government to provide their children with facilities to access online classes.
Delhi High Court advocate and social worker Ashok Agarwal said that the government has started online education, but the government should first think how all children can study online.
"It is the fundamental right of the children to get education. So the government should provide the facility of online education to the children who do not have the facility so that their study doesn't suffer," added Agarwal.