Context: Recently a survey was conducted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), using a sample of 18,188 students from Classes 8-12 from Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samitis and schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education.

Findings of Survey:

• School education in the time of COVID is heavily dependent on mobile phones, with 80-90% of older students in Central government schools saying they use mobiles rather than laptops to access digital schooling during the pandemic.
• In KVs, 84% of students used mobiles, while 19% used laptops for learning, similar to the ratio in CBSE schools.
• In the Navodaya Vidyalayas, which are meant for gifted students from rural areas, less than 10% of learners used laptops, while 88% were dependent on mobile phones. Less than 6% used TV or radio.

Challenges to online education:

• Poor Internet connectivity
• Difficulty of using mobile phones to share and access content.

National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT):

• The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is an autonomous organisation of the Government of India, which was established in 1961 as a literary, scientific and charitable Society under the Societies' Registration Act (Act XXI of 1860).
• Its headquarters are located at Sri Aurbindo Marg in New Delhi.

Reference:https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/coronavirus-lockdown-over-80-of-students-depend-on-mobiles-for-learning-ncert/article32397305.ece#:~:text=School%20education%20in%20the%20time,to%20an%20official%20sample%20survey.

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