64% parents in favour of starting online classes for young children but most in favour of limiting them to 2 hours/day
June 24, 2020, New Delhi: The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way school education is imparted. The infection spread and the following lockdown has ensured that physical classes stay out of bounds for children and at the same time, the online mode which was not the preferred mode to hold classes, has become the primary mode.
Several states like Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra have banned online school classes for children in Grade 5 or under. Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh for under Grade 5 and Maharashtra for under Grade 2. However, there are sets of parents on both sides of the move – some have appreciated it while others have spoken against it. LocalCircles conducted a national survey to get pulse of the parents and grandparents on this issue and received 8,287 responses from 204 districts of the country.
Citizens were asked what should be the way forward on this. In response, 31% parents said that the ban should continue, while 49% said online classes should be started but limited to 2 hours per day. 15% said online classes should be started and run for the duration of regular school hours which could be 4-6 hours. 3% were unsure while 5% said it was not applicable to them as they did not have school going children or grandchildren in the family.
64% parents in favour of starting online classes for young children but most in favour of limiting them to 2 hours/day
This means that 64% parents are in favour of starting online classes for young children but most are in favour of limiting them to 2 hours per day.
Some states have decided not to conduct online classes for primary students as they believe it will subject young children to screens. Also, many have cited the fact that a large number of young children, especially the under privileged ones may not have access to devices or an internet connection to connect to online classes. On the other hand, some schools in these states have said that they had invested in building the infrastructure to provide online classes to younger kids, which will be of no use now. Many parents in the states have also stretched themselves to make arrangements for their children to attend online classes by buying laptops and tablets, getting a broadband connection etc., who now feel that all of that was done for nothing.
Most parents are however of the opinion that the online classes should not be banned, but regulated in terms of the number of hours each day, so that younger children could continue to get education as well as a schedule is put to their days. According to some parents, for children in the marginalised sections of the society, the Government should instead look at enabling education through television channels and radio channels. Also, corporate social responsibility resources should be utilised for online education by providing incentives to corporates to come forward and enable families and schools in their area with the needed equipment.
Some parents are of the opinion that the screen time for children at home has anyways shot up as they are not allowed to step out of the houses and it is better if a part of that screen time is used in something productive.
Survey Demographics
8000+ citizen responses were received from 204 districts of India. 68% respondents were men while 32% respondents were women. 51% respondents were from tier 1, 33% from tier 2 and 16% respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts. They survey was conducted via LocalCircles platform and all participants are validated citizens who had to be registered with LocalCircles to participate in this survey.
About LocalCircles
LocalCircles, India’s leading Community Social Media platform enables citizens and small businesses to escalate issues for policy and enforcement interventions and enables Government to make policies that are citizen and small business centric. LocalCircles is also India’s # 1 pollster on issues of governance, public and consumer interest. More about LocalCircles can be found on https://www.localcircles.com
Akshay Gupta - media@localcircles.com, +91-8585909866
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