Rural Engagement Programme

Post Graduate Programme in Management 2020-22

Indian Institute of Management Indore
 

SCHOOL EDUCATION IN RURAL MADHYA PRADESH:

OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES OF COVID 19 AND
BEYOND

Report for Gwalior District

Submitted by:
Ashima Vardhan 2017IPM029
Kaivalya Karkare 2017IPM053
Manav Sharma 2017IPM065
Paaras Bhardwaj 2017IPM082
Kokala Bharath Chandra 2020PGP210
Vatsal Haria 2020PGP492
Anurag Shukla 2020PGP055
Navaneeth Raj K R 2020PGP270
Sai Kaushik Kandukuri 2020PGP358
Samar Deshmukh 2020PGP364
Swagata Murmu 2020PGP444
Rathwa Ishant Bharatkumar 2020PGP336

On
28th February 2021

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Groups 17 & 69

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1. Executive Summary

Students from Indian Institute of Management Indore, conducted an in-depth research on the status of
education in the state of Madhya Pradesh, focusing on the Gwalior district. 150 responses from state
officials, teachers, and students were collected to arrive at a conclusion that would represent the true
nature of the school education in its entirety and also throw light on the impact that COVID-19 had on
the schools, teachers and students.

Telephonic interviews were used to collect data from the respondents and later on collated to derive
meaningful inferences. 97% of the students are currently enrolled in school or have received primary
education, while 3% of the students have never been to school. 55% of the students are male while
45% are females, which is lower than the state sex ratio of 864 females per 1000 males. 68% of the
students are enrolled in state sponsored government schools, while 32% of the students go to private
schools. This is in line with the data we collected on the household income of our respondents. Those
who earned more than 10000 INR per month are more likely to opt for private education for their
child. With the advent of Covid-19, more students have enrolled in coaching classes and spend most
of their noon, attending these classes. 27% of the students are currently working for pay to support the
family. Most of them also attend school, while those who don’t do it currently plan on attending in
future. More than 95% of the teachers deemed in-person classes to be a better mode of teaching, when
compared to online methods. Though some state officials supported the idea of online classes in
combination with physical class, the number was low. 95% of the teachers had smartphones and used
it to keep in touch with the students after the schools were shut. Some teachers also made in-person
visits to their student’s home. 82% of the households had smartphones while less than 2% had
computers in their home. Majority of the teachers were not provided any formal tutorials teaching
them how to handle online platforms like Zoom and Google Meet. Also, many teachers were of
opinion that extra classes should be arranged once the school reopened. Only 11% of the parents
agreed to helping their child with education on a daily basis, with an overwhelming 80% of the
parents saying they rarely ever do it. This could be correlated to the low number of graduates found
amongst parents in the survey.

Based upon the data collected and the common theme that emerged from the responses we have come
up with three recommendations. First would be to make sure that all the students return back to
school, once the school reopens. This could be done through a mass enrolment program, where
parents would be charged a nominal fee and the entire scheme would be a government welfare
program. Secondly, to start summer classes so that students can cover the syllabus they missed due to
the pandemic. Finally, a parental outreach program should be started convincing more students to
enrol for schools and higher education subsequently. Focus on technology should be of paramount
importance as an alarming number of children do not have access to stable internet connection,
especially in rural parts of the district. Implementing these would ensure that the country is
continuously producing individuals that contribute to the nation’s growth and ensure global
competence for coming decades.

2. District Background (Secondary Research)

Gwalior is a district in northern Madhya Pradesh. Gwalior district is further divided into 4 Tehsils of
Gwalior, Dabra, Bhitarwar, and Chinour.

Gwalior has a population of 20.32 Lakhs according to the 2011 Census. The sex ratio of Gwalior is
864 females per 1000 males. The literacy rate for the Gwalior district is 76.65%. The male literacy
rate stands at 84.70% and the Female Literacy rate stands at 67.38%. According to the 2011 Census,

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37.31% of the district’s population resides in rural areas, whereas 62.69% of the district’s population
reside in urban areas.1 This population split indicates that Gwalior is a relatively urban district.

The HDI of Gwalior is estimated to be 0.604. There is a wide disparity amongst the population from
different classes and from rural to urban. People belonging to a Scheduled Tribe in a rural part of
Gwalior are expected to have the lowest HDI estimated at 0.217.2 Conversely, people not belonging
to SC/ST groups from an urban part of Gwalior have an HDI of 0.717. This indicates that individuals
belonging to a backward community within the district of Gwalior, residing in a rural part of the
district, are expected to be relatively less ‘developed’ and hence have lesser access to resources.
Within Gwalior, the tehsil of Bhitarwar has the lowest HDI of 0.569 and the tehsil with the highest
HDI is Gwalior with an HDI of 0.748.3

In the district in 2009-10, 204500 hectares was the net sown area whereas 105600 hectares was the net
irrigated area.4

The average household size in the district is 5.3 people in 2011. This is down from 2001's number of 6
people. In the district, 19.3% of the population belongs to Scheduled castes whereas 3.5% of the
population belongs to a Scheduled Tribe according to the 2011 census.

The workforce participation rate stands at 33.7%.5 The percentage of main workers stands at 27.55%,
and marginal stands at 6.17%. Within the distribution of the labor force, 50.34% of all men are in the
workforce and workforce participation from women stands at 14.49%.6 Of the total workforce of 7.58
lakh people divided by CD block, 40.69% are cultivators, 37.18% are agricultural labourers, 2.19%
are household industry workers, and 19.94% work in a different sector.7

There is a rural-urban divide in workforce participation. Cultivators, agricultural labourers, and

household industry workers constitute only 10.96% of the workforce in urban Gwalior. ‘Other
Workers’ represents close to 89.04% of the total workforce. 8

The Multidimensional Poverty Index for the district of Gwalior was estimated at 0.096 as compared to
the MPI of India estimated at 0.121.9 The MPI of Madhya Pradesh was estimated at 0.180 indicating a
higher poverty level compared to the rest of the country, however, the district showed a relative
divergence to the MPI of the state. In absolute terms, the number of MPI poor people in the district
stood at 5.83 lakh people in 2016. People who are deprived and MPI poor face maximum deprivation
in Cooking fuel, Sanitation, Nutrition, and Housing in 2015/16.10

1
Census 2011, Gwalior District : Population 2011-2021 data,
https://www.census2011.co.in/census/district/288-gwalior.html
2
Aalok Ranjan chaurasia, Social Class and Residence Disparities in Human Development in Madhya Pradesh,
India, Page 298, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0973703020130203
3
Aalok Ranjan, HumanDevelopment inMadhya Pradesh, Page 21,
http://www.shyaminstitute.in/monograph_15.pdf#page=15
4
Census 2011, DISTRICT CENSUS HANDBOOK, Page 4,
https://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/dchb/DCHB_A/23/2304_PART_A_DCHB_GWALIOR.pdf
5
Census 2011, DISTRICT CENSUS HANDBOOK, Page 30,
https://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/dchb/DCHB_A/23/2304_PART_A_DCHB_GWALIOR.pdf
6
Census 2011, DISTRICT CENSUS HANDBOOK, Page 49,
https://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/dchb/DCHB_A/23/2304_PART_A_DCHB_GWALIOR.pdf
7
Census 2011, DISTRICT CENSUS HANDBOOK, Page 53,
https://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/dchb/DCHB_A/23/2304_PART_A_DCHB_GWALIOR.pdf
8
Census 2011, DISTRICT CENSUS HANDBOOK, Page 54,
https://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/dchb/DCHB_A/23/2304_PART_A_DCHB_GWALIOR.pdf
9
Alkire, S., Oldiges, C. and Kanagaratnam, U. (2018). ‘Multidimensional poverty reduction in India
2005/6–2015/16: still a long way to go but the poorest are catching up’, Table 5a.1,
https://www.ophi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/OPHIRP54a_vs2.pdf
10
Alkire, S., Oldiges, C. and Kanagaratnam, U. (2018). ‘Multidimensional poverty reduction in India
2005/6–2015/16: still a long way to go but the poorest are catching up’, Table 5a.2,
https://www.ophi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/OPHIRP54a_vs2.pdf
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For the state of Madhya Pradesh there has been a significant decrease in absolute MPI figures from
2005/06 to 2015/16. In the year 2005/06 the MPI figure for Madhya Pradesh stood at 0.358 which
reduced to 0.180 in 2015/16.11

According to the 2011 Census, there were 95 pre-primary schools, 974 primary schools, 525 middle
schools, 113 secondary schools, and 40 higher secondary schools in the district.12 The enrolment rate
ratio was 70.95% in Madhya Pradesh.13 The Gross Enrolment Ratio stood at 99.6% in primary
schools, 58.3% in middle school for the district of Gwalior in 2000/01.14

Due to the unavailability of district level data for Gwalior on education, we have focussed on Madhya
Pradesh for the rest of our secondary research on education. The PTR ratio for Madhya Pradesh stood
at 26 in Primary schools and 39 in Upper primary schools.15 The Student classroom ratio was 24 in
elementary level and 34 for secondary level in 2013-14 in Madhya Pradesh. There were 7593 Schools
in Madhya Pradesh without a toilet and 162 schools without water.16

3. Project Objective and Scope

Rural Engagement Program is an innovative program initiated by IIM Indore. It gives students the
opportunity to engage with the public and solve their problems. Students get to experience how the
rural economy functions. It mainly focuses on the development of the rural population of Madhya
Pradesh. Students collaborate with the rural administration and work to solve any problem faced by
the people. This year the objective of the project was to draw insights into the effects of COVID-19 on
the students. This can be used to decide what further steps could be taken to reduce the impact of the
pandemic on education. The project also aims to determine the effectiveness of online classes and
other technologies which facilitated teaching during the pandemic.

11
Alkire, S., Oldiges, C. and Kanagaratnam, U. (2018). ‘Multidimensional poverty reduction in India
2005/6–2015/16: still a long way to go but the poorest are catching up’, Table 6,
https://www.ophi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/OPHIRP54a_vs2.pdf
12
Census 2011, DISTRICT CENSUS HANDBOOK, Page 342,
https://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/dchb/DCHB_A/23/2304_PART_A_DCHB_GWALIOR.pdf
13
Aalok Ranjan Chaurasia, Human Development and Population inMadhya Pradesh, India, Page 41, Table 2.4
http://shyaminstitute.in/MP_HD_POP.pdf
14
Universalising ElementaryEducation in Madhya Pradesh, Page 44,
http://www.dif.mp.gov.in/mphdr/education_e_2002.pdf
15
Indiastat, UDISE in MP 2014-15,
https://www.indiastat.com/table/madhya-pradesh-state/education/pupil-teacher-ratio-ptr-primary-upper-primary-
scho/1004277
16
Indiastat, Status of Basic Facilities,
https://www.indiastat.com/table/madhya-pradesh-state/education/status-basic-facilities-ptr-scr-at-elementary-sec
o/909515
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4. Methodology
● This year REP was conducted online due to the pandemic and we used telephonic interviews
to reach out to the officials, teachers, and parents.
● A telephonic interview is a data collection method. It is used to collect information when it is
not possible to meet the interviewee in person. It helps to gather a lot of information without
much work if the interviewee is also interested. In our case, many of the respondents were
interested to impart information as they were concerned about the effect of the pandemic on
childrens’ education.
● Contacts of officials. teachers and parents were given by the education department. Separate
questionnaires were prepared for officials, teachers, and parents. The questionnaire was
designed to answer questions such as what was happening before, during, and after the
pandemic. It also contained various open-ended questions which can be used for qualitative
studies.
● We are a team of twelve students from PGP1.
● Contacts:

Officials Teachers Parents TOTAL

Number of contacts received 48 152 316 516

Number of contacts reached 13 65 70 166

● Average interview time across categories of interviews:

o Officials: 15 minutes

o Teachers: 15 minutes

o Parents: 20 minutes

5. Key Findings
a. School Enrollment

The data collected from 70 parents/students in Gwalior district have 113 children, out of which 60%
attend school, 4 children (3.53%) are not attending school and 37% completed schooling. The gender
composition of students attending school is 44.11% females and 55.89% males. The number of
students enrolled in Government schools is high, around 67.6% and rest in private schools. Around
41% of students are enrolled in higher secondary school, around 20% students enrolled in high school,
28% students enrolled in upper primary school, and the rest in the lower primary class.

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It was further observed that the median income of households that can afford private education for
their wards is more than 10000 INR / month. Both the genders are evenly represented when it comes
to access to private education, with 52% males and 48% females.

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Households with a graduate are 3 times more likely to send their children to private schools as
compared to families with no prior history of a college education.

b. Analysis of the time usage

As per the student/parent survey, the time usage by students has been analyzed and the following
patterns were observed.
● The usage of technology (codes - 5, 12) by students is spread across throughout the day.
However, the majority of the students, which is 21.42% use technology between 6:00 PM -
9:00 PM. Least number of students comprising 11.9% of the total use technology between
12:00 PM to 3:00 PM.
● Time spent on education (codes - 2, 3, 4, 5) by children does not vary as much as the time
spent on technology. Most of the students study during the timings 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM with
a majority percentage of 54.95%. This is probably due to the coaching centers that children
are attending these days due to the closure of many schools or studying by themselves. This
majority of students can again be divided into 31.53% from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM and
23.423% from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM.
● Around 26.76 % of students are working in a household business or another job for pay(codes
- 6). There are students who work during day timings and night shifts as well. Most of them
are attending schools along with the job. The students who are not attending the school as of
now and working for pay are looking forward to attending the school again in the future.
● There’s very little variation among the type of schools that children attend. There are two
types of schools that children attend which include Government and private schools. The
majority of them with more than 50% of students attend government schools. The highest
education among the household varies a lot between undergraduate, higher secondary, and
secondary education. The male percentage among students is 52.85% and the female
percentage is 47.1428%. The other information including social group, income class being
sensitive information, most of the students/ parents were not willing to share the information.
However, with the available information, the following patterns have been observed. There
are almost equal numbers of families in OBC, SC, and ST with a few extra families in the
OBC group. The average salary range among the interviewed families is in the range of INR
10,000 - 20,000 and the range was from INR 5,000 to INR 30,000+. Most of them were
self-employed and very few members were a part of jobs. The salary above mentioned
includes the salary earned by the students as well.

c. Availability of technology infrastructure at home and comfort with technology tools

The availability of technology and the comfort with the same can be analyzed for the students and the
teachers differently. There are some patterns and insights described below that can be identified
through the data collected:

As per Teacher/Officials Survey

● Out of all the surveys taken for the officials/teachers, around 95% of the respondents owned
smartphones and almost all of them had used Whatsapp in the past 7 days.
● There were only about 20 officials and teachers who owned a computer or tablet. Out of these
20 respondents, 95% are officials and the rest 5% are head-teachers, which implies that the
teachers who actually teach children do not have access to the technology. Hence, almost
one-fourth of the respondents only used Zoom or other web conferencing applications.
● Out of the 12 respondents who preferred both In-Class and Online education in combination,
60% of these respondents were officials, which implies that at the executioner level, the
teachers themselves only prefer in-class education as they are more in touch with the students.
● About 60% of the respondents had used Youtube but it wasn't clear if they used the
application just for their recreational purposes or actual educational purposes. Moreover,
Around 56% of the respondents had also used the Education Department App, however, we
feel that there was a conformity bias for this information coming from the teachers. This is
because it is a government app and we introduced ourselves in association with the Madhya
Pradesh Education Department.
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 ● About 60% of the teachers and officials believed that more than 75% of their students had full
access to electricity but around 80% of them believed that less than 50% of their students had
access to the internet connection with more than 40 respondents stating that it is available to
less than 25% of their students.
● Only 1/3rd of the teachers/officials believed that more than 50% of their students had access
to smartphones. Moreover, most of them believed that there was only one smartphone at their
students’ home which was usually with the bread earner of the household and was usually
never home at their regular hours of teaching.
● Around 95% of the teachers and officials that use advanced technology on a regular basis like
Zoom Classrooms, E-Mails, etc. are postgraduates in their Educational Level.

As per the Student/Parents’ Survey

● Out of 70 respondents, around 38 of them had one smartphone per household and 20 of them
had more than one smartphone with them. But with households having more than one
smartphone, the size of the family was large i.e. on an average of 7-8 members and hence, the
accessibility is still low.
● A meager 20% of the respondents had the access to a computer or tablet which made it harder
for them to access advanced technology or use apps like Zoom, Youtube, etc.
● Though almost 65% of the respondents had access to television and were comfortable with its
use, it was rarely used for the educational purposes of the students. Radios are as a whole
discarded for use by most of the respondents and thus, it is strongly recommended that the use
of Radios for any educational purposes must be discontinued.
● 50% of the respondents, when asked about their regular use of technology, used Whatsapp
and Youtube the most. Out of these two, Whatsapp was used more frequently for receiving
educational content.
● It was observed that even though teachers responded positively using the education
department App for sharing study material and educational videos, very few respondents from
the student community actually responded positively to the application or even knew about
the app. This may also because of the fact that most of the respondents were from private
schools, however, the number is still very low.
● There were about 25 respondents who positively responded to the use of Zoom and Google
Classroom and these respondents relatively belonged to the well-off households, on average a
monthly income of more than 10-15k.

d. Teacher’s initiative when schools were shut

The perception of the teachers’ initiatives and their execution differs among the opinions of parents,
teachers, students, and officials. There are some patterns and insights described below that can be
identified through the data collected:

As per Teacher/Officials Survey

● Among the teachers interviewed, around 85% of teachers agreed only that they were able to
reach the students during the lockdown period. Moreover, about only 50% of these teachers
agreed to have reached more than 50% of students. Only 8 teachers could say that they were
able to contact all of their students during the lockdown on a regular basis.
● Over 80% of the teachers used the mode of Whatsapp to share content and have their
homework transferred to students over this. However, due to the low accessibility of the
student to the phone, they found the response either very delayed or very low.
● 50% of the teachers in and around Gwalior, especially the rural tehsils, conducted mohalla
classes where they used to gather at a mohalla to make children revise the study materials and

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 sometimes even distributed the books. Mohalla classes were sometimes also done online,
where students gathered at a home with most resources in terms of phone and internet.
● Some of the special initiatives that teachers took were, calling parents and being in touch with
them to ask about their homework, some of them used the Whatsapp Video Call feature to be
in touch with students and some officials also conducted webinars.
● Only about 65% of the teachers and officials agreed to have the required training for the
online lecture mode and hence, the efforts to educate them and the students alike are required
for the government to continue the online mode of education.

As per the Student/Parents’ Survey

● Most of the students and parents agreed on the fact that most of the educational content was
shared over Whatsapp and the student was given homework on a regular basis.
● However, the students did not seem to have experienced any mohalla class with only 6 out of
70 respondents agreeing to attend one of these classes. This may also be because of the fact
the sample of students were more urban-living population with access to the internet and
online classes whereas the sample of the teachers interviewed belonged to rural areas of
Gwalior district as well.
● Only 25% of the respondents agreed to have a phone call with the teachers and around 35% of
students have had some kind of Online and TV Classes implying teachers were not in as much
touch with the students apart from sharing the educational content to maintain a conducive
learning environment.

e. Educational support from parent

In terms of educational support provided by the parents, according to the telephonic survey we got the
following data-
Parents helping their children with studies or school homework
● Rarely: 80%
● Every Day:11%
● Once a week: 7%
● Once a month: 2%

Parents’ frequency of visiting their child’s school:

● Before the pandemic: 50%
● Never: 25%
● Before last month, and after the pandemic: 13%
● Last month: 12%

When we did the analysis in terms of the background of the person, It was observed that most of the
students were enrolled in the government schools, their parents rarely helped the students with their

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studies whereas when asked about when did they last visited their child’s school their response was
mixed among the options. For the students who attended private schools, a similar trend was
observed.

In terms of monthly income earning, households with less than Rs5000 per month were not able to
help their child with their studies but most of them had visited their child’s school during this time of
the pandemic. In the bracket of Rs5000-Rs10000 monthly earning similar trend was seen in the
households earning less than Rs5000 monthly. Rs10000-Rs20000 monthly earning households rarely
helped their child with studies and had visited their child’s school only before the pandemic. In the
bracket of Rs20000-Rs30000, the majority of them also had rarely helped their child with their studies
and a 50-50 percent response was observed between last month and before the pandemic when parents
were asked when they had visited their child’s school. In the monthly earnings of Rs30000 and above
bracket similar trend was seen as that of the bracket of Rs10000-Rs20000. Similarly, the respondents
who did not want to reveal their monthly income or didn't know showed a similar trend to the monthly
earning bracket of Rs5000.

In terms of gender difference, there was no difference in the response made, making it evident that
both genders are getting equal opportunities.

When analyzed in terms of the social group they belonged to, most of them denied to answer it but
from the data we got it is evident that the social group of the respondent did not affect their response
to the questions which makes it evident that social group of the students did not much affect their
studies.

When analyzed in terms of the education level of the household it was seen that the parents of the
children did not have a proper education themselves were also showing similar trends to that of the
parents who had had proper education and held a degree, only difference remaining is the frequency
they visit their child’s school, where parents who did not receive a proper education and had studied
only till secondary school were observed to visit their child’s school more often.

f. Support required when children rejoin school

As per Teachers/Officials’ Survey
● According to the survey, 52% teachers/officials agreed with extra classes for covering
the syllabus for this year.
● According to 37% teachers/officials, students will need revision of earlier lessons.
● According to survey 25% teachers/officials, students need to learn how to utilise
technology platforms.
● According to 19% teachers/officials from the survey, students will require additional
learning material.
● According to 18% teachers/officials, students will require scholarship or monetary
assistance for study after covid-19.
● Smaller number of teachers/officials have the opinion that students will not join the
school or will require clothes/uniforms.
As per Parents/Students’ Survey
● According to 40% students/parents, they need scholarship or monetary assistance.
● According to the survey, 37% students/parents agreed to have extra classes as well as
revision of earlier lessons for this year.
● According to 21% students/parents, they required assistance for learning to use
technology platforms.
● According to 18% respondents, they will require additional learning material.
● According to 7% respondents, they will need assistance for clothes/uniforms.

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g. 17Open Ended Questions:

As per student/parent survey:

About 52% of the students surveyed were males. Of the 72 respondents, only 5% had a person in their
family who had a postgraduate degree. It was followed by 30% Undergraduates and another 30% with
higher secondary education or a diploma. As with the educational level, only 5% of the respondents
had a family monthly income of Rs.30000 and above. The proportion of those earning between
Rs.10000 to Rs.20000 was 14% followed by an 18% earning between Rs.5000 to Rs.10000 per
month.

● How children continued learning after the closing of the school: A very clear theme that
emerged from this question was the online medium of education. Most respondents claimed
that they/ their wards continued education through online classes and WhatsApp on mobile
phones. Some students had to drop off of school and start working to earn money to support
their families. Some, who could afford private tuition, continued with coaching classes in
online and offline mode. Schools like Kendriya Vidyalaya had provisions for online
education, whereas the circumstances in government schools, according to respondents, were
dismal. Some had a poor view of the government schools, citing bad quality as their reason
for their view towards government schools.

Fig 1. Word bubble for how children continued learning after schools closing from the interviews
taken
● Concern or suggestions shared by students/parents: Although the question did not mention
concerns with the government, most respondents have shared their concerns in relation to the
government. They want schools to reopen immediately so that their kids can get back on
track. The lack of facilities like electricity and water hampers their livelihood and by default
the education that their kids are able to get. Some also suggested better training of teachers so
that they can teach effectively in the online mode.

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Thematic analysis was done by reading through the data and assigning codes and themes through Voyant.

13
 Fig 2. Word bubble for concerns by students/parents from the interviews taken

As per teacher/official survey:

Maximum respondents (64%) were postgraduates and male (88%). However, the average age of
respondents was 46 with a standard deviation of 7 years, indicating high age variation in teachers
across Gwalior. Most surveyed teachers taught in schools set in rural areas which had a relatively
smaller student and teacher population than those located in semi-urban or urban areas. The average
student population per school is 158, with the highest in a semi-urban school (1337). The teacher
population per school averaged 6, with the highest in a semi-urban school (51). The average teacher to
student ratio is 2:17.

● Efforts taken by teachers: Out of 79 respondents, 26 answered this question. The basic
observation was that everyone made an effort in some form or the other in order to contact the
students. The common theme that emerged out of those who answered was the platform used
to contact students. The most common platform was Whatsapp, which was used to distribute
material, clear doubts, and give homework. Out of the respondents who answered, 20%
conducted mohalla classes for the students.

Fig 3. Word bubble for Efforts taken by teachers to contact students after schools closed from the
interviews taken

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● Additional findings as per teacher: Many teachers found it difficult to get students to
participate through WhatsApp or mobile phones. Neither party liked the pedagogy.
Additionally, as one teacher observed, some students were being forced into excessive
household work or labor. According to the same person, the students who did not partake in
labor toiled away their time. They had nothing else to do, and without the schools being open,
there was no incentive for the students to study. Another interesting observation by a teacher
was that the principal of their school monitored what was happening in other schools so that
they are not left behind.
● Concern or suggestions shared by teachers: From the responses received many themes about
the problems faced were identified. The most common problem was poor electricity facility.
Many of them expressed it to be a region-wide problem. The problem becomes grievous as
the lockdown had forced children and teachers to their homes and cut off contact with each
other. The online modules provided by the government would help only if the problem of
electricity is resolved. It also makes it difficult for teachers to teach under normal
circumstances as they cannot access computer labs or teach in poor light. The second theme
was an improper internet connection. This problem stemmed from two reasons, one poor
internet connectivity in the area and poverty. Some people could not afford internet plans even
they had phones and hence, could not access materials sent over the internet. Some
suggestions that came out of the interviews were to re-open schools as both teachers and
students are finding it hard to cope up with the online system. There were suggestions related
to increasing the teacher-to-student ratio as well.

These observations bring out how the lack of basic utilities has made teaching difficult. The
lockdown, forcing online education, has also made a lot of teachers uncomfortable because of
their unfamiliarity with the mode of teaching. They seem reluctant to learn, not only because
it’s new, but also because they feel it is useless as most students don’t have access to phones
or the internet or both.

Fig 2. Word bubble for concerns or suggestions by teachers/officials from the interviews taken

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6. Recommendations
Now that we have covered the project objectives, methodologies, and key findings, we will offer
recommendations based on our analyses of the key findings with the aim of offering implementable
solutions to the concerned government and administration bodies.

A. Mass Re-Enrollment Program

Considering the social and economic dynamics and the effect that the Covid-19 pandemic had on
these, it is necessary to ensure that all the students return to schools now that restrictions have been
lifted and schools are opening with full swing and significant classroom strength. The nature of
education has been such that India has been seen year-on-year growth in education enrollments,
however, it is most imperative for governance and administrative bodies to now ensure that the trend
of growing enrollments is maintained post the pandemic and that there is no loss of students from the
primary education system in the state.

Given the economic nature of the problem, a large number of economically weaker Indian families
had to face immense hardships during and post the pandemic as well. As a result of this, it is possible
that the children from these economically impoverished families are forced by their family members
to leave the schooling system in order to work and support the family in a financial manner. This has
been the chronic problem that has plagued enrollment in the Indian schooling system - where
economically impoverished families believe that their children are better off working to financially
support their families rather than spending their time in the schooling system.

We also understand that while most of the respondents to the surveys do not stress the issue of
students not returning to school post the pandemic, there is the likelihood of the social desirability
bias in the responses of the respondents.

As such, our first recommendation would be for the concerned local administrative bodies to organize
a mass re-enrollment program to ensure that those students who have been disallowed from returning
to schools are not allowed to succumb to family pressure and are instead brought back into the folds
of the primary education system. Furthermore, such a mass re-enrollment system will also ensure that
the rates of enrollment into the primary education system (which have taken a shock due to the
pandemic) are reached (or crossed) once again with the aim of ensuring normalcy.

B. Mass Crash Summer Crash Courses

The second critical issue under our observation is that of a drastic decrease in the quality of education
that has been imparted over the course of the past year during the covid-19 pandemic. This issue
primarily pertains to those students who were a part of the education system but were unable to access
quality education during the lockdown. As has been highlighted by the various classes of respondents,
the reasons for this are as follows:

a. Lack of online classes and online study material.

b. Lack of access to online classes and online study material due to lack of access to electricity.
c. Lack of access to online classes and online study material due to lack of access to a
smartphone and/or internet connection.
As such, the issue that we seek to address is of students officially being a part of the education system,
yet not receiving any quality education for over a period of 10 months. To rectify this, we propose that
the concerned administrative bodies organize a system of mass crash courses in the summer break
before the start of the new academic year. This will ensure that those students who were unable to
access educational material for the past year will be made abreast of all that they have missed.

There is sufficient reason to believe that the lack of quality education in the past year could possibly
make classroom grasping of concepts more difficult for students in the next academic year. We

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strongly believe that organizing these mass crash courses of critical academic concepts of the
preceding academic year thus will ensure that the students are better able to cope with the academic
requirements of the following academic year.

C. Mass Parental Outreach Program

This issue is closely related to the first issue of children having to drop out of the education system
due to financial pressures at home. One of the major achievements of Indian education policy over the
past few years has been the ability to convince the parents of children from economically
downtrodden families to allow their children to attend school rather than forcing them to work for
short-term low financial gains. As such, it has been an uphill task in convincing the economically
weaker sections of society of the long-term benefits of financial facilitation that education offers them.

It is likely that due to the immense financial stresses induced by the pandemic, that many parents from
these economically weak families have reverted to the old-school blind belief of forcing their children
to discontinue education to ensure that more hands are providing financing to the family.

As such, given the pre and post-pandemic situations, we recommend the implementation of a mass
parental outreach program where officers, teachers, and social workers once again start approaching
the parents of economically weaker children to ensure that they still hold a positive view of sending
their children to schools.

This is all the more pertinent in the case of female students given the background of how female
students from poorer households are forced to drop out of school at a younger age than their male
counterparts.

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7. Glossary

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