Rural-Urban Divide in Access to ICT Devices, Skills and its Usage among Government School Students and their Perception towards ICT Education

Abstract

In the 21st century every sector has been emerging with new technological changes in terms of digitalisation and communication. Particularly in the field of industries and service sector rapid changes can be seen at all levels. In order to get jobs in this 21st century the students should equip with the required technical skills where they can sustain themselves for better future. In every individual’s day to day life activities the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become an essential part. Then how best the government schools in India are equipped with Information and Communication Technology (ICT)? As part of PhD the researcher has conducted the study to assess the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills among rural and urban school students and its usage in government secondary schools in Telangana State. A total sample of 1824 government secondary school students of 8th, 9th & 10th class were selected for the study from Warangal Rural and Warangal Urban districts. Chi-square test and t-test were performed to analyse the differences. The study reveals that there is statistical significant difference between the rural and urban students’ availability of ICT devices - smart mobile (p=0.0041) and computer (p =0.0042) at their homes. Only one-fourth of the rural and urban students had given correct answers to basic computer related questions and having very poor computer skills. Both urban and rural students had perceived positively asserting that there will be an impact of ICT usage on learning. Key words: digitalisation, jobs, skills, students, government schools, rural, urban.