Promoting quality education: How technology is reforming education in rural India?

"Future of India lies in its Villages”

Education is the key in enhancement of quality of life of human beings. Modern education focuses on education with skill development distinctly with technology. The revolutionary change happened due to the awareness amongst common people about this shift in learning. With all recent scenarios the National Education Policy 2020 emphasises digital learning as an alternative to the conventional classroom model but implementing this in rural India faces some challenges. EdTech companies like Samsung, Classplus, and Globus Infocom are promoting technology-based learning.

The challenges the education system facing today is that it’s still unreachable to the ground level that is towards rural area where students are deprived of quality education as provided in an urban area. The current situation of pandemic has made it more difficult since the lack of infrastructure in schools have forced children to seat at home without proper education.

Today Government in collaboration with major educational technology brands are bringing some changes in the way of learning. Also, EdTech companies in India like Globus Infocom Limited with innovation based education solutions created an environment where children are being inclined towards education through technical improvisations. Need is to make both the learners and mentors to be aware towards the way EdTech solutions providers works.  

Education in Rural India:

Education can transform human beings completely by providing people their own space in society. It can transform life of humans from social backwardness to social stability with dignity.

The students in rural India are deprived of quality learning due to several reasons majorly including social and developmental crisis. Poor infrastructure and lack of facilities don’t attract students either for learning and going to schools. While most of these areas need transformative changes, which will take time, technology can be better option to drive it faster. With the increased use of EdTech solutions providers in rural areas, learning has become an experience for the students to enjoy & engage with. Learners can avail plethora of benefits with better access to quality education which will eventually reform how education has been perceived in rural areas so far. Rural development aims at finding the ways to improve the rural lives with participation of the rural people themselves to meet the required need of the rural area

Need of Educational Reform in Rural India:

Since the Education in rural India in comparison to urban area is still behind in quality education therefore there is an urgent need of structural reforms in education system of India. Though Government has already put in place no. of initiatives to bring digital transformation across India specifically targeting rural education.

Apart from such issues, schools in a rural area goes through distinct other challenges which could be:

Lack of availability of resources: Lack of availability of resources in the rural regions in India has been a prominent issue. Since the basic infrastructure in rural areas of India does not support technology much, most of the ed-tech providers are not able to penetrate the rural space and reach their education domain. Because of such issue, most of the advanced resources are not accessible to rural India.

Lack of infrastructure: There is also a lack of infrastructure in the schools situated in rural areas with no availability of proper classrooms, libraries, laboratories, computers etc. The ratio related to students and infrastructure is very low since students are more in no, but buildings are comparatively less. The basic requirements of electricity, connectivity along with internet etc have not been very strong in rural India. Though with the Digital India mission, the situation is far better now with continuous work towards bridging the quality gap between rural & urban India.

Less educational content: The educational content used in rural schools are limited to books & teacher’s knowledge. It doesn’t allow their mind to think ahead of their capacity & inhibits their development. Such educational content does not entice students to engage much with educational practices. Thus involvement of Digital multimedia content can help them to rise their interest in studies along with provide them access to limitless educational resources.

Poor Teacher Student Ratio: Though no. of teachers employed to a school has increased but the expertise of teaching staff is still below par in absence of technical skill trainings. So, there are still lesser upskilled teachers on no. of students in rural classrooms.

Digital division:  There is a huge gap between the digital enablement of urban & rural classrooms. Unlike urban classroom, rural schools are far behind in terms of technology enablement with a poor base of infrastructure & lack of awareness. The major drawback lies in the lack of accessibility, connectivity, internet reach & many more such factors. To bridge this gap, leading edtech brands like Globus Infocom, Edusmart, Educomp etc are bringing digitally enable education solutions even to the remote villages of India, making education accessible for all.

Gender inequality: As awareness towards education is growing, more and more girls are being encouraged to go to the school even parents are encouraging their girl child towards education. But with the recent awareness amongst society its long way to go to achieve gender equality in rural areas.

How technology is revamping the Education:

The EdTech sector is the fastest to catch up on the trend. An important reason besides “necessity” is due to Covid, the increasing acceptance of students as well as their parents to switch to technology enabled education switching from physical classrooms to the online learning. With increasing trend of digital education, students also are becoming technology savvy.  

Integrating technology with education is the need of this hour, not just for students but for educators, policymakers, different educational institutions etc EdTech industry leaders can explore the possibility of expanding their technological resources so that rural area with such innovating growth can be benefitted directly. Top EdTech companies in India play an integral role in supporting Government schools with smart learning facilities and better infrastructure.

Educational technology brands like Globus Infocom, Samsung, Educomp etc are committed to eliminating imbalances in rural education in India by uplifting the classrooms digitally, mobilising quality teachers by trainings and offering career counselling. Providing quality education was the main driver for programmes undertaken by the EdTech industry leaders which resulted in reduced dropouts, motivated students to learn more and promoted active participation from the community to follow a reformed and inclusive education system.

Reduction in drop rates of students: With reach of EdTech in the classrooms of rural India it has attracted students to come to the classes. The multifaceted features of the technology have fascinated students towards learning decreasing the drop rates percentage in many districts.

Promoting active participation: Involving students in learning with the help of technology enabled solutions leads to improvement of participation of students making them confident with mutual collaboration.

Awareness amongst parents towards education: Parents by seeing the well-developed infrastructure and proper management are gaining trusts over the education system therefore encouraging their child to opt for better education.

Technical skills development: The students who learn through technology can create a set of skills that will help them throughout their professional careers and their growth will consequently lead to the growth of society.

Progressing results of students: As the interest towards the studies increase so as the growth of child develops. With the interest in studies through technological learning students’ results have also developed. And education technology companies in India are emerging as leaders in digital education.

Growth of interest in learning: With the attractive features provided by the ICT solutions in classroom learning, students find it very amusing studying through it. The animation of concept, colourful tools, and experimental videos keep them focused.

Conclusion:

The way to improve the present scenario of education in rural India is not only, providing proper and adequate infrastructure and other resources but also implement modern technologies in education, creating awareness about the importance of ICT enabled education and rights.

Rural development should be viewed as viable strategy for national development. Rural communities in developing countries are still facing challenges related to access to basic services, economic opportunities, and some challenges regarding planning related to rural-urban divide. To curtail such divide for the development of rural areas Government have taken several courses of actions by inaugurating different digital initiative schemes in rural areas like National Mission on Education using ICT which focuses on improvement in quality of education by providing support for different interventions like in-service training of teachers, conduction of surveys at state and national level, ICT and digital initiatives with collaboration with EdTech leaders, School Leadership development programmes, remedial teaching for academically weaker students, NISHTHA at the secondary level to tailor modules for online education etc. Top EdTech companies in India have great potential to bring economic and social development benefits to the nations. For that to happen, considerable effort is required to empower and equip Governments and the education technology providers with the capacity to leverage it.  Need of an hour is proper implementation of such programmes with the help of EdTech industry leaders so that wide gap between rural and urban areas be unfasten.

Also, schools need to become system leaders to reorient the educative process by equipping children to adapt to change, by reorienting education and learning so that everyone has an opportunity to acquire knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes that empower him/her to contribute to a more sustainable future.