Over 2.96 crore school students lack digital access, Bihar records highest number: Govt

NEW DELHI: Over 2.96 crore school students across 24 states do not have access to digital devices with Bihar reporting the highest number, according to government data presented in Lok Sabha Monday.

The total of 2.96 crore does not include such students from Delhi (4 per cent) Jammu and Kashmir (70 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (70 per cent), Punjab (42 per cent) and Chhattisgarh (28.27 per cent) as their absolute numbers were not shared. While the data for states including Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra, Manipur and Uttar Pradesh is not available, while the survey for West Bengal was still in process.

The details were presented by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in a written response to a question in the Lower House. In terms of absolute numbers, Bihar has the highest number of such students at 1.43 crore, followed by Jharkhand (35.52 lakh), Karnataka (31.31 lakh) and Assam (31.06 lakh). Uttarakhand has 21 lakh such children. Other states with over 10 lakh children without digital device are Haryana, Odisha and Tamil Nadu, while Kerala has 9.5 lakh children in this category, he said. Due to the prolonged school closures forced by COVID-19, the teacher and learning process has moved online.

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