Challenges to Digital Education During Covid-19: Insights from Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

If anything, covid-19 stretched the pre-existent inequalities in education system in India. If prompt corrective action is not taken, the number of girls dropping out of schools will continue to climb, opening the door for early marriages, sexual exploitation, and domestic abuse. In order to answer the following questions, we will examine access and challenges to education during covid-19 in Uttar Pradesh in this article- How does education during a pandemic impact children's learning and continuity in education? Focus groups were held in both rural and urban areas of Uttar Pradesh with head teachers, schoolteachers and students (mostly girls) from higher secondary sections of schools to propose possible corrective measures to increase access to education and to raise awareness of potential issues that teachers and students may encounter. Our findings recommend that digital education needs a new outlook towards the core syllabus as well, which should be flexible to adapt to new methods of teaching-learning process. The study also proposes introduction of bridge courses to fill up the learning gap caused during the lockdown.